National Institute of Mental Health and Neuro Sciences (NIMHANS) asserts that drugs control departments across the country should immediately enforce a regulatory mechanism to stop the sale of drugs like sedatives, anti epileptic, analgesics anxiolytics and other related products without prescription to control the number of suicide cases and attempts.

NIMHANS wants drugs controllers to tighten up the action against the drugs retail sector engaged in such activities and take a tough stand on the easy availability of drugs over-the-counter.

Around 1.10 lakh suicides were recorded last year and 10 to 20 times of that number have attempted suicide. The pattern of suicides revealed that the use of organophosphorus compounds like metacid, rat poison, pesticides and DDT were prominent modes of attempting suicide in the rural and sub-urban parts of the country and that attributed to 65.6 per cent of the cases. Consumption of pharmaceutical substances like drugs formed 20 per cent of cases compared to drowning, falling from high-rise buildings and self inflicted methods. Since sale of organophosphorus compounds cannot be controlled like drugs, NIMHANS is keen to see that with the support of the drugs controllers, sales of the drugs could be controlled by questioning during the purchase, Dr. G Gururaj, professor and head, department of Epidemiology, NIMHANS told Pharmabiz.com

The common drugs for suicide are anti epileptics (18.6 per cent), sedatives, (15.9 per cent), anxiolytics (5.9 per cent) and OTC analgesics and anti inflammatory (16.2 per cent).

NIMHANS has already held a dedicated workshop for drugs control departments that was attended by drug inspectors who were apprised on the issue of ethical drugs going OTC.

The Karnataka drugs control department has not sent any circular despite the workshop but there have been several verbal warnings for violating the law.

However V Hari Krishnan, president, Bangalore District Druggists and Chemists Association stated that it was difficult to curb the menace as drug stores had different people manning the counters. "There have been occasion, when we insist on the prescription and it has been produced by the customers, yet suicides have taken place in those families not by the patient but by other family members.

It is a difficult task to control the sale of sedatives and that needs a massive education and awareness drive amongst the drug retail sector according to a section of chemists who feel that it was their duty to ensure sale with prescription only.