Pubdate: Tue, 01 Nov 2005 Source: Australian, The (Australia) Copyright: 2005sThe Australian Contact: http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/files/aus_letters.htm Website: http://www.theaustralian.com.au/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/35 Author: Simon Kearney DRUG MIXERS SPIKE NURSE'S WORKLOAD NINE out of 10 of Beaver Hudson's psychiatric patients arrive with a cocktail of drugs in their bodies that would make Rolling Stone Keith Richards blush. St Vincent's Hospital, where Mr Hudson works, is right in the middle of Sydney's drug scene. Described as drug-psychosis central, it is about to open a ward dedicated to the burgeoning number of drug-related psychiatric patients. Mr Hudson, an emergency psychiatric nurse who has been at St Vincent's since 1998, has seen more than the typical variety of cases. From street walkers to stockbrokers, St Vincent's catchment area handles them all. "Our area is what could be described as a very rich demographic," he said. The Weekend Australian reported a disturbing link between drug use and psychotic illnesses such as schizophrenia. Federal parliamentary secretary for health Christopher Pyne, who has oversight on drugs, lashed the states' relaxed cannabis laws on the weekend. Mr Hudson says it is common for a patient to arrive having taken ecstasy, methamphetamine, the animal tranquilliser ketamine, marijuana, various prescription drugs and alcohol, and then having tried to wash it out of their systems with purgatory drugs. "Nine times out of 10, people are poly-substance abusers," he said. Many arrive extremely depressed, hearing voices or unpredictably violent -- and maybe all three. The hospital's statistics show that a huge increase in amphetamine use has resulted in a spike in drug-related cases handled by the Emergency ward -- from 200 in 1999 to 1600 last year, relating to methamphetamine alone. St Vincent's director of mental health, Peter McGeorge, said availability was the problem. "As the heroin supplies have diminished, people have turned to amphetamines as an alternative," he said. "They're shooting it up and snorting it the same way as they would have with heroin." Dr McGeorge said the increased potency of marijuana and the tendency of drug users to take more than one drug had contributed to the rise in emergency psychiatric cases at the hospital. Dr McGeorge and Mr Hudson believe the new unit's greatest impact could be on getting treatment and early intervention to young drug users at a very early stage. "The people that we worry about are youth. We'll be able to offer an alternative and get the family in, the general practitioner and drug and alcohol counsellors," Dr McGeorge said. - --- MAP posted-by: Beth Wehrman