PGI to organize CME on “Dual Diagnosis:Facing the Reality and the Challenges”

By Tricitynews Reporter

Chandigarh 17^th March:- A CME on “Dual Diagnosis: Facing the Reality and the Challenges” will be held at the Postgraduate Institute of Medical Education and Research on 18 March 2017 by Drug De-Addiction and Treatment Centre, Department of Psychiatry.

Dual diagnosis is broadly defined as ‘the concurrent existence in an individual of substance misuse (for example alcohol and illicit and prescription drugs) and mental disorder (for example depression, post traumatic stress disorder and schizophrenia)’. The nature of the relationship between these two conditions is complex and it does not merely denote the presence of two disorders. Substance use has been implicated in the genesis of psychiatric illnesses, a consequence of psychiatric illness as ‘self medication’, or a co-occurrence with psychiatric illness due to common vulnerability factors. Dual diagnosis patients were associated with higher rates of specific negative outcomes such as violence, legal problems, medication noncompliance, relapse and re-hospitalization; and incarceration; depression and suicide; severe financial problems from poor money management; unstable housing and homelessness; family burden, high rates of sexually transmitted diseases and higher treatment costs. Hence awareness among the lay public and health professional health workers is of great importance from public health point of view.

A recent study published in a peer reviewed journal from our centre showed that one in every third person visiting our centre is a case of dual diagnosis. (Subodh et al., 2017)  Seeing an increase in the number of cases visiting our centre we have started in August 2011, a weekly Dual Diagnosis Clinic has been started in DDTC to cater to the special and challenging needs of patients with a dual diagnosis of substance use disorder and mental illness. In the last four years, 660 patients have been registered in this clinic.

This CME is intended as a capacity building exercise aimed at enhancing the diagnostic and management skills of psychiatry trainees and young psychiatrists. The CME will have lectures and discussions with major focus on two way interaction between the resource faculty and the participants. The resource faculty comes from reputed Institutions of India like NIMHANS Bangalore, NDDTC, AIIMS New Delhi and KGMU Lucknow. Prof Pratima Murthy from NIMHANS Bangalore will discuss her experience on Facing the Diagnostic Challenge on Dual Diagnosis. Prof Rakesh Lal from NDDTC, AIIMS New Delhi will talk on Management Challenges of managing dual diagnosis. Prof P K Dalal from KGMU Lucknow will talk on challenges of managing Psychotic Dual Diagnosis. All the eminent speakers have two to three decades of experience in handling dual diagnosis cases. These eminent speakers will share their experiences on working on dual diagnosis.