Kids with mental and drug woes

The star

BY LOH FOON FONG

KUALA LUMPUR: Patients as young as 12 have been treated for both substance abuse and mental problems.

Cannabis is the most common substance first used and tried, followed by amphetamine-type stimulants.

In many cases, psychiatric symptoms only appear by the time the users reach their mid to late 20s.

This was revealed in the first and preliminary attempt at a clinical audit performed at the Kuala Lumpur Hospital psychiatric and mental health department from October to December last year for a dual-diagnosis registry.

Dual diagnosis describes patients with both psychotic disorders and problematic drug and/or alcohol use.

An odd job worker identified as AJ, 26, started sniffing glue with his neighbourhood friends at age nine.

At 12, he was introduced to cannabis by his friends. He “progressed” to smoking heroin at age 16 when he could not get the same “high” from cannabis.

He was also involved in crime, had been in and out of prison and drug rehabilitation centres.

AJ first developed psychosis at age 22. He was aggressive and had auditory hallucination and paranoia.

Kuala Lumpur Hospital’s psychiatrist and addiction specialist Dr Norliza Chemi expressed concern that the young were not aware that taking drugs could trigger mental illness.

In AJ’s case, it was likely that drug abuse triggered schizophrenia, she added.

Out of the 334 medical records available for the clinical audit, 54 (25%) males and 13 (6.8%) females received a dual diagnosis upon their discharge.

From the number, 30 were found to be schizophrenic while 23 had drug-induced psychotic disorder.

Dr Norliza said the challenges with treating patients with dual diagnosis were poor adherence to treatment; increased risk of aggression and suicide as well as worsening of prognosis.

She said integrated services that cater to both mental illness and drug problems were needed because current system only focused on one disease and rehabilitation centres were limited.

Task force to stop spread of extremism

BY LOH FOON FONG

KUALA LUMPUR: The Global Move­ment of Moderates and Angkatan Belia Islam Malaysia have condemned the Islamic State or IS as an extremist group and are forming a task force to complement government efforts to curb the spread of extremist thought.

GMM CEO Datuk Saifuddin Ab­­dullah said: “What we need to do is to explain to the people what IS is.”

Instead of joining IS, Malaysians could offer humanitarian aid to the displaced people of Syria, Iraq and other countries, he added at a joint press conference with Abim vice-president Jufitri Joha after a roundtable discussion on Jihad in Syria.

Saifuddin urged Malaysian youths not to join IS in Syria and any other extremist groups.

International Union of Muslim Scholars member Ustaz Ahmad Fauwaz Fadzil said there was a need to return to basic Islamic teachings. “The principle of Islam is peace. ,” he said.

International Islamic University Revealed Knowledge and Human Sciences lecturer Dr Maszlee Malik said Muslim scholars should redefine jihad and interpret it in more contemporary terms such as for eradication of poverty and for community work.