CME on relapse, prevention of schizophrenia held

Tribune News Service

Ludhiana, August 10

Continuous medical education (CME) on ‘Relapse Prevention of Schizophrenia’ was organised by Ludhiana Psychiatric forum.

Addressing this meeting Dr Rajeev Gupta, city-based psychiatrist discussed the issue of frequent relapses among patients of schizophrenia and said it was important to make a timely diagnosis of the disease and start an early treatment in order to ensure adequate recovery from the disease.

Common symptoms of the illness are aggressiveness, suspiciousness, heaving voices, self-talk, self-smile violence and paranoid behavior.

Dr PN Kulhara, former professor and head PGI, Chandigarh, said poor education, low awareness level, poor health facilities, negative social attitude, side effects of the drugs were responsible for poor follow up and the relapse of the disease.

He said those who were having frequent relapses and did not take oral treatment regularly, monthly intramuscular depot injections were better option. Dr Paramjeet Khurana from Ludhiana discussed about the education programmes to increase awareness of general population and patient community and suggested methods of ensuring adequate treatment.

Dr Sandeep Goyal, professor, Psychiatry, from CMC, Ludhiana, also talked about the clinical issues in management of schizophrenia patients and stressed the need of psycho-education.