14 May, 2015

The world now has a billion smokers

Almost five percent of the world's adult population (240 million people) have an alcohol use disorder and more than 20 percent (one billion people) smoke tobacco, new research on global addictive disorders has found.

The report estimates the number of people injecting drugs at around 15 million worldwide.

"Bringing all this data together has been very challenging but having this global snapshot in one accessible resource should prove invaluable for policymakers and researchers," said the report's lead author Linda Gowing, associate professor at University of Adelaide in South Australia.

The "Global Statistics on Addictive Behaviours: 2014 Status Report" shows that there are huge regional differences in use of addictive drugs.

The heaviest drinkers are in Eastern Europe where 13.6 litres of alcohol is consumed per head of population each year, followed by Northern Europe at 11.5 litres.

Central, Southern and Western Asia have the lowest consumption at 2.1 litres. Eastern Europe also has the most smokers at 30 percent of adults, closely followed by Oceania at 29.5 percent, Western Europe at 28.5 percent, and Africa at 14 percent.

North and Central America with the Caribbean have the highest rates of injecting drug use at 0.8 percent, which is more than twice the rate in Northern Europe at 0.3 percent.

The findings also showed that that the harm to society from legal drugs is many times the harm from illicit drugs.

For the study, online sources of global, regional and national information on prevalence and major harms relating to alcohol use, tobacco use, unsanctioned psychoactive drug use and gambling were identified through expert review and assessed.

The findings were detailed in the journal Addiction.

Source: www.timesofindia.com

14.05.2015

State licensed drugs in India sold without central regulatory approval

A new study has revealed that many fixed-dose drug combinations (FDCs) are sold in large amount in India, even though they have not received central regulatory approval. 

FDCs include two or more active pharmaceutical ingredients combined in a single dosage form. They are used as effective treatments for many conditions, including Parkinson's disease, HIV, malaria and tuberculosis. 

In 2012 however, a committee of the Parliament of India reported a very large number of FDCs had been licensed by state drug authorities without approval by CDSCO (the Indian central drug licensing agency) - meaning they haven't been thoroughly examined or tested and could put patients' lives at risk. 

Dr Patricia McGettigan, who led the study at Queen Mary University of London, said that India needed to ban the sale and manufacturing of unapproved fixed-dose drug combinations, beginning with those which include drugs banned or unapproved internationally, and therefore most likely to be harmful. 

The researchers analysed approval status and sales volumes of FDCs in four therapeutic areas: 

Formulations containing a non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug (NSAIDs, for pain relief) 

Formulations containing metformin (for diabetes) 

Formulations containing an anti-depressant or a benzodiazepine or both (for depression/anxiety)

Formulations containing an anti-psychotic drug 

Among these therapeutic areas, of 175 FDC formulations marketed in India between 2011-2012, the researchers found CDSCO approval for only 60 (34 percent). Whilst almost all metformin FDC sales were from CDSCO-approved formulations, products with no record of CDSCO approval accounted for over two-thirds of anti-depressant/benzodiazepine FDC sales (69 percent), almost half of anti-psychotic FDC sales (43 percent), and more than a quarter of NSAID FDC sales (28 percent). 

Multiple formulations included drugs which are restricted, banned, or were never approved in other countries because of associations with serious adverse events including death. 
Co-author Professor Allyson Pollock added that their research wholly supports the need for a complete overhaul of the new Drugs Bill and they urge the government of India to make this a priority. 

The study is published in PLOS Medicine. 

Source: www.timesofindia.com                            14.05.2015

The greatest source of happiness is the ability to be grateful at all times

Zig Ziglar