New drugs will help those with mental disorders

Medical science has come a long way in the understanding and treatment of disorders that affect our minds… but here in Belize we have not always been able to access those advances, largely due to a lack of resources. Today, despite government’s tight financial situation, steps were taken to provide needy patients with the best pharmaceuticals on the market. Jacqueline Woods reports.

Jacqueline Woods, Reporting
Last year three thousand, seven hundred and fifty persons in Belize were diagnosed with either clinical depression or stress related illnesses. These health problems are usually treated with medication, but in many cases the drugs induce side-effects that are almost as debilitating as the mental illness they?re supposed to help.

Orlando Pulido, Pres., Mental Health Consumer Assn.
?Over the past many decades they have been suffering from trembling, agitation, dry mouth, and many other side effects that are debilitating and effects their ability to hold useful employment and contribute to the economy.?

This morning it was demonstrated that the cries for a safer alternative did not fall on deaf ears. A new line of psychotropic of drugs that more effectively treat mental illness was introduced to the media and medical community. The updated pharmaceuticals are more costly but result in fewer problems for patients.

Dr. Claudina Cayetano, Psychiatrist
?All medications have side effects, so even this medication has side effects. But the difference is that the side effects are not going to be so disabling, so for example one of the main one, we call them extra perimeter side effect which has to do with the tonicity of the people, you know they get very rigid, they have drooling. This medication does not necessarily cause that side effect. On the other hand, they also tend to treat not only to the positive symptoms, so let say when you talk about Schizophrenia, but also the negative symptoms, the lack of pleasure, the lack of motivation, so they tend to do a little better job than the other ones we use to have.?

The other good news is that the Ministry of Health, through its clinics, will be offering the expensive medication free of cost. It?s a tall order that those affected hope can be sustained. Minister of Health Vildo Marin says his government is presently spending about nine million dollars each year on pharmaceutical supplies, and it is estimated that the new medications will cost them half a million dollars.

Jacqueline Woods
?How realistic is it for the Government of Belize to provide these medications at no cost to patients??

Vildo Marin, Minister of Health
?Well as you heard the Prime Minister stated in his budget presentation, the budgets that we are presenting right now have a focus on poverty alleviation, education, and health and we are very much committed to ensuring that these three areas are met.?

?Health is very expensive and not only here in Belize, but worldwide. It?s one of the major problems that all governments are confronting. But at least we here in Belize can say we are trying as much, we are striving to have a very good health system and all the members of the Cabinet are committed. So that when we raise taxes, yes nobody like paying taxes, but at least we are trying to show the Belizean people where their taxes are going to.?

For those patients who cannot access the free drug programme, mental health medications can cost as much as six hundred dollars a month. Jacqueline Woods for News Five.

Some of the new drugs included in the programme are the anti-psychotics Risperdal and Zyprexa, the anti-depressant Sertraline and Akineton, a drug that reduces the physical shaking that accompanies some mental disorders and their treatment.