A safe treatment to beat a simple jaw fracture pain management has landed up a man in his early thirties in JJ hospital with three years of addiction.
Mitesh Rane (name changed), a bus conductor by profession, was prescribed the drug pregabalin to be taken twice a day for a week. The Osmanabad resident, however, continued with it as it gave him a euphoric feeling and started increasing the dose without consulting a doctor. A JJ Hospital doctor said that when he came to them, he was taking 30 tablets a day.
"He was prescribed two tablets a day for the pain. The consumption increased slowly over the time to around 30 tablets per day in a year," said Dr Sagar Mundada, the psychiatrist who is treating Rane.
He said that Rane's family tried to stop him but he refused to do away with it as the medicine gave him pleasant effect.
Pregabalin, a prescription only medicine, is used to treat neuropathic pain in the extremities caused by nerve damage, diabetes, shingles, and fibromyalgia. According to doctors, it can produce feelings of relaxation, calmness and euphoria.
"Rane said that the medicines helped him deal with anxiety. The pleasant effect after taking the medicine prevented him to stop the medicine. He kept increasing the dosages," said Mundada.
Talking about an incident that scared the family about his addiction, Mundada said that about a year and half back, he had gone to some place for three days and forgot to take the Pregabalin along. "He could not sleep, started having tremors, became very restless and agitated. That is when the family and Rane realised that the addiction needs to be treated," said Mundada.
While Rane approached JJ Hospital for treatment soon after that, doctors said that he is quite irregular with the treatment. "We have put him on medicines to reduce the craving and slowly reduce the number of tablets by a psychotherapy called systematic desensitisation. Presently, he follows up once in every two months and taking 5-6 tablets per day," said Mundada.
Dr Yusuf Matcheswalla, a psychiatrist with Masina Hospital, said this is a very rare kind of addiction. "This is one of a kind case. Though chemists are now very particular of giving medicines with prescription, few places still give medicines on over the counter basis. We do get such rare drug addiction cases, like Combiflam addiction."
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