Psychiatric and anesthetic implications of substance abuse: Present scenario

Abstract

Substance abuse has crossed all social, economic, and geographic borders and is spreading its fangs in each and every sphere of society irrespective of age, gender, caste, creed, and religion. These days, we encounter several patients of substance dependence who visit different hospitals for elective surgical procedures or in emergency (e.g., roadside accidents and with various complications associated with substance abuse). These patients at that time may be either addicted to them or are intoxicated by them or on de addiction treatment. Acute or chronic use of these drugs affect the respiratory, cardiovascular, central nervous, renal, hematological, and hepatic system variably in individuals thus due to diverse clinical presentations a complete understanding of the path physiology and anesthetic implications of drug abuse is essential to tailor a safe anesthetic plan for these high-risk group of patients.

Keywords: Anesthetic implications; drug addiction; intoxication; physical dependence; substance abuse.