Signs your child is abusing drugs

“There is no way addicts can avoid getting detected,” informs Dr Ajay Kumar, Assistant Professor and Psychiatrist at Gandhi Hospital. “No amount of so called detoxification methods can erase the traces. Even if they succeed to some extent, ‘Dope Test’ can detect the type of drugs used,” he says.

In the recent drug busts around the city, children as young as 13 years were found to be substance abusers. Parents should be highly careful and observe movements of their children to prevent them from falling prey to drug addiction.

“They should keep a close watch on their wards and in case they notice any abnormal behaviour like their children coming home late, or smell emanating from their dress or body then it becomes imperative on the part of parents to look for symptoms like red eyes, marks of multiple injections, or children demanding more money, hiding their school bags and preferring to spend more time in loneliness,” he warns.

According to Dr Ajay, children addicted to drugs will have intense desire for intake of the substance and would resort to different kind of behaviour and may even resort to stealing. Dr Ajay says it would be better if the parents take the issue seriously and send the child for counselling.

“The cost of de-addiction and rehabilitation is much less compared to the cost of drugs consumed by the addicts,” he shares. Explaining about process of investigations the psychiatrist says that along first samples of serum concentrate blood levels would be testedfollowed by drug concentration in nails, hair and urine.

“If a person had not taken drugs over six months then it cannot detect by normal investigations. In such cases the Dope test is done to detect the drugs in blood, urine, hair and nails,” he adds. Once it is established that a person is using then ‘Pharmacology’ and ‘Psychological’therapies are given along with counselling.

“If a person is irritable and becomes unmanageable at home, then he will have to be hospitalisedand will have to be treated by administering some injections, which will bring down his urge to take drugs,” says the doctor.

By V Naveen Kumar