amit singh

Injecting drug use (IDU) is a growing concern in India. This problem may coexist with other psychiatric disorders. The psychiatric comorbidity in IDUrs affects the psychosocial functioning of this population. This study aimed to assess psychiatric comorbidities, psychosocial problems, and global functioning of people who inject opioids.

This cross-sectional study included opioid-dependent individuals with a history of injecting opioids who visited an outpatient clinic for buprenorphine maintenance treatment. The patients were assessed by SCID-I and SCID-II for Axis–I and Axis–II psychiatric disorders, respectively. The diagnosis was confirmed according to DSM-IV-TR. Moreover, the assessment of psychosocial and environmental problems was done according to Axis-IV of DSM-IV. Functioning was assessed using the Global Assessment of Functioning Scale (GAF). Substance use severity was also assessed using Addiction Severity Index (ASI). 

A total of 100 participants were included in the study. All participants were male, and the majority (63%) were in the age range of 18-40 years with the mean age of 36.96 (SD=10.12). Moreover, 76% of the participants had psychiatric comorbidity. Mood disorder (28.95%), anxiety disorder (13.16%), any personality disorder (27.63%) were the most common comorbidities. The results also revealed psychosocial and environmental problems were significantly higher in participants with comorbidity and their global functioning was poor. 

Psychiatric comorbidities are quite common and are associated with various psychosocial and environmental problems. Early identification and interventions for comorbid conditions along with community-based psychosocial rehabilitation should be considered for better outcomes.

The novel coronavirus (CoV) has resulted in a global pandemic despite drastic measures to avoid contagious spread. On April 3, 2020, there were around 1 million reported cases and 51,515 deaths due to CoV disease 2019. The disease presents with flu-like symptoms such as fever, dry cough, and fatigue. India being a resource-limited country, it is very important to differentiate the suspected cases clinically.

The aim was to know the correlation of various clinical features of severe acute respiratory syndrome CoV 2 (SARS-CoV-2)-infected cases in selected districts of UP.

SETTING AND DESIGN: This was a retrospective cross-sectional hospital-based study.

This was a retrospective cross-sectional study performed on 1243 suspected cases of SARS-CoV-2 infection from March 25, 2020 to April 17, 2020 in the department of microbiology of our institute to know the incidence of SARS-CoV-2 infection in selected districts of Uttar Pradesh. These cases were analyzed to see the association of various clinical symptoms with SARS-CoV-2 infection. For statistical analysis, Pearson's Chi-square test was performed using SPSS version 23.

Out of total suspected cases, 4.5% were positive. Travel history was present in 80.4% of positive cases. About 83.9% had fever, 28.6% had shortness of breath, 35.7% had dry cough, 17.9% had either Type I or II diabetes mellitus, 12.5% had chronic kidney disease, and 7.1% had obstructive pulmonary diseases.

Negative clinical history is very important in ruling out the suspected cases who came out to be free from the infection.

Furosemide (FSM) is commonly used in the treatment of edema associated with congestive cardiac failure, cirrhosis of the liver, renal disease, including the nephrotic syndrome and hypertension. However, in ascites, it is clinically limited due to its frequent dosing and short biological half-life and its prolonged-release preparations are not available. Therefore, the main objective behind the present research work is to develop chitosan coated and conjugated poly (lactic-co-glycolic acid) (PLGA) nanocarriers, to sustain the delivery of FSM with improved systemic circulation. Emulsion-solvent evaporation technique was used for the preparation of nanoparticles. In-vivo pharmacokinetic study showed 2.6, 3.10, and 4.30 folds enhancement in relative availability of FSM for FSM-PLGA, FSM-chitosan-coated-PLGA and FSM-chitosan-conjugated-PLGA nanoparticles, respectively than FSM. The present research work concluded that FSM loaded chitosan conjugated PLGA nanoparticles could enhance the systemic circulation of FSM with improved pharmacokinetics parameters.