Psychotropic drugs have utility as lifesaving medicines, say psychiatrists

NAGPUR: Anti-anxiety and other psychotropic drugs do not have a good reputation in India. However, psychiatrists from the city defend these medicines, even calling them as lifesaving drugs.
Psychiatric Society Nagpur is conducting a CME on ‘Managing adverse effects of psychotropic drugs’ this weekend. In the sidelines of a press conference about the CME, a discussion about suicide and anti-anxiety, anti-depressant drugs started.
“We all know that suicidal tendencies in a person can be detected much before the final step is taken. Suicide is almost always preceded by feelings like depression, sadness, indifference and fear among others. At this stage, if a person is administered drug to supress these feelings, the medicines can help save a life. Doesn’t such a medicine become a lifesaving drug?,” said Dr Praveer Waradkar, former president of the society and head of the psychiatry department at Indira Gandhi Government Medical College and Hospital (IGMCH). He admitted though that these medicines can have side effects like anaemia, osteoporosis, obesity, etc on long term exposure.
President of the society Dr Rajiv Palsodkar liked these side effects to thorns that someone wishing to smell roses must endure. “Most of the side effects happen only through long time exposure which will only happen with patients who have severe episodes of some problem. Saving their life in such a situation gets a priority,” he said.