DOCTORS should break patient confidentiality to inform local authorities of all drug addicts with school-age children, according to one of Scotland's leading drugs experts. Professor Neil McKeganey, head of Glasgow University's Centre for Drug Misuse Research, said family doctors needed to share information in the interests of children's welfare. He made his comments as he revealed details of the first comprehensive study into the impact of drug abuse on the children of addicts. McKeganey estimates that 20,000 children in Scotland have a parent who is an addict. He said that the doctor-patient relationship may even be making the lives of the children more difficult. [continues 374 words]
ACADEMIC pressures, bullying and problems with teachers are driving a growing number of schoolchildren to take drug overdoses. Last year 90 secondary school pupils were treated at one Scottish hospital after taking drugs - mostly paracetamol - because they felt they could no longer cope. Children's groups and mental health organisations expressed serious concern about the study at Edinburgh Royal Infirmary. Anne Houston, director of ChildLine Scotland, said: "ChildLine hears from hundreds of children and young people every year who tell us that they have tried to harm themselves in some way. They tell us that they feel so desperate that they want to self-harm as a way of releasing pent-up feelings." [continues 369 words]
NINE women at Cornton Vale Prison have been charged with physically and sexually assaulting a new inmate during a violent search for drugs. The alleged attack took place six weeks ago in Ross House, the remand block, the day after the woman arrived. A Central police spokeswoman confirmed that the nine - aged from 21 to 41 - had been charged and a report had been sent to the procurator fiscal. It is believed that hardened prisoners at Cornton Vale, desperate for drugs, regularly perform intimate body searches, which even prison staff are not permitted to carry out, on new arrivals. Such attacks may throw new light on the spate of suicides at Cornton Vale, near Stirling, where eight young women have killed themselves over the last three years, the majority of them in the remand block. [continues 340 words]
Nurses are joining the fight to get cannabis products prescribed for patients. The move follows concern that people with conditions such as multiple sclerosis and cancer are not getting adequate pain relief from traditional treatments. A motion calling for patients to be prescribed the drugs has been put forward by the Royal College of Nursing's Pain Forum and will be debated at the RCN's annual conference in Bournemouth this week. Only two cannabis-based products, known as cannabinoids, are currently used therapeutically. One, nabilone, is used in hospitals in Britain to prevent nausea in cancer patients receiving chemotherapy. The other, tetrahydrocannabinol, is used in the US to improve the appetites of patients with Aids. [continues 167 words]
An expansion of home-visiting needle exchange services for addicts living in rural areas is urgently needed, according to the Scottish Drugs Forum. The forum accused the government of failing to implement advice from ministers three years ago to improve services for people living in Scotland's remote towns and villages. Some addicts are being forced to share needles and others have to travel more than 20 miles twice a week to get clean equipment and avoid the risk of developing HIV or hepatitis C. [continues 248 words]
Restricting licensing hours makes no difference to levels of alcohol-related violence, a study has confirmed. The research, which also confirmed the suspected link between alcohol and violence, will disappoint police and local authorities who will now have to find other ways of tackling the problem. Restrictions on extensions to permittted licensing hours have been introduced in some towns and cities to reduce street violence and demands on emergency services. "We found it did not make any difference," said Dr Colin Graham, a member of the research team now working at Inverclyde Royal Hospital. "The hope was that if people were coming out of these places at one time there would be a peak of people. Associated alcohol problems would be minimised and there would be a more predictable workload." [continues 84 words]
