Indian journal of medical sciences
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Comparative Study
Social support in treatment-seeking heroin-dependent and alcohol dependent patients.
Social support is being recognized as a positive influence on health. It may influence motivation, treatment compliance and outcome in drug dependent patients. On the basis of clinical impression, it was hypothesized that social support in heroin (illicit drug) dependent patients is poorer than in alcohol dependent patients. ⋯ Despite lesser proportion of patients with any legal source of income in the heroin dependent subject group, the mean social support score across the two study groups was comparable. Overall, the mean social support scores were low in both the groups. The study provides some undestanding about the perceived social support amongst treatment seeking drug dependent individuals from India and also indicates the need to address the issue of social support in substance users.
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A study was carried out to determine the incidence of Cryptococcus species in AIDS patients and their susceptibility pattern to the different antifungal drugs used for therapy. PCR as a rapid diagnostic tool for cryptococcal meningitis was evaluated. All the isolates were senstive to the three antifungal drugs tested indicating that the development of drug resistance is not a major problem in the treatment of cryptococcosis. All the culture positive specimens were positive by PCR which can be evolved into a very useful, rapid diagnostic tool to detect cryptococci in clinical specimens.