Bengaluru: There has been a rise in ‘tapentadol’ drug addiction incidence in the city, with the number of cases seen at NIMHANS crossing 100 this year.
Tydol tablets, a tapentadol drug, is prescribed for relieving pain in adults, but their synthetic opioid nature is used by some people, mostly youths, to get high. Sources at NIMHANS told TOI that in 2018, they hardly saw 15-20 ‘tapentadol’ addiction cases a year, but its Centre for Addiction has been seeing 15-20 such cases every month over the past three years. Most of these patients are from Bengaluru, with a few from other districts of Karnataka and also from Tamil Nadu, Telangana and Kerala.
Crushed, mixed with water, and injected into veins, the synthetic opioid can be addictive if consumed excessively. The drug effect lasts for 2-3 hours.
Jayant Mahadevan, assistant professor of psychology at the Centre for Addiction, said they started seeing cases of tapentadol addiction around 2018. “As time passed, every year, the number increased. Now, we are seeing 15-20 new cases each month… We believe only a small fraction of those who use the drug are coming for treatment. The actual incidence of addiction could be much higher,” he said.
The drug is mostly consumed by youth aged between 18 and 30 years. Mahadevan said, “It’s quite concerning because we see a lot of youth, and the majority are from slightly poorer sections of society. Youngsters end up consuming at least six tablets a day, spending up to Rs 2,000 daily,” he added.
Dr Pallavi Joshi, consultant psychiatrist at Manipal Hospitals, Varthur Road, said tapentadol has a huge potential for abuse and addiction. In addition to relieving pain, it gives a ‘rush’. She said, “Consuming more tablets can even lead to passing out and lower heart and respiratory rates. In higher dosages, it poses a risk of death.”
The most difficult aspect is managing withdrawal symptoms and the chances of relapse are high, as these opioid substances cause a very high degree of addiction,” she added.
To control tapentadol use, the Karnataka drugs control department has developed software to maintain a real-time database for tracking the sale and purchase of the drug by pharma wholesalers and retailers. Recently, 11 drug licences were cancelled by the drug control department for not providing sufficient data for purchase and sale of tapentadol in Bengaluru, Hubballi, and Ballari.”Pharmacies and retailers are asked to maintain and submit the data of sales of this drug every month,” said Jayram C, president of Karnataka Pharmacies, Retailers and Distributors Organisation.
