Agartala, January 14, 2022: In spite of a clarion call on ‘Nesha Mukta’ (Drug-Free) state made by Tripura’s former Chief Minister Biplab Kumar Deb in 2018, there has been a spurt in the numbers of drug addiction cases in the last five years till December 30, 2022.
A report obtained from the Modern Psychiatric Hospital at Narsingarh in the suburbs of Agartala city revealed that a total of 847 patients took admission seeking treatment for drug addiction and 4,009 patients seeking treatment in OPD for drug addiction in the last five years starting from 2018 to 2022.
Sharing this statistics in the rise of drug-addiction patients, Consultant Psychiatrist & Addiction Medicine Specialist Dr Udayan Majumder said that there were 32 patients in 2018 who sought treatment for drug addiction and 402 patients sought treatment in 2022 for the same while 96 patients visited OPD seeking treatment in 2018 for drug addiction and 1,853 patients paid visit to OPD for treatment in 2022.
The council of ministers under chairmanship of former Chief Minister Biplab Kumar Deb and incumbent Chief Minister Prof Dr Manik Saha has given a free hand to the state police administration for curbing the menace of drugs. Undoubtedly, police officials are leaving no stones unturned to achieve this target of clearing the state from the clutches of drugs. But due to a section of police officials and state administrative employees, the target cannot be reached.
Notably, the Modern Psychiatric Hospital at Narsingarh in the peripheries of Agartala city is the second largest hospital after the LGB Regional Institute of Mental Health in Tezpur.
Apart from this, Dr Majumder said that 14,183 patients in 2018 and 22,366 patients in 2022 sought treatment in OPD of the Modern Psychiatric Hospital at Narsingarh with psychiatric illness while in IPD, 572 patients in 2018 and 911 patients in 2022 with psychiatric illness took admission.
In five years starting from 2018, counselling of 6,706 patients were done and 224 intervention awareness programs were done. In three years starting from 2020, 1,451 calls were received in suicidal helpline number 9863100639, and 50,272 COVID patients were given tele-counselling, he added.
