Sustained COVID and new youth substance abuse discussed at SEMG Congress
Second day of the 30th National Congress of the Spanish Society of General Practitioners and Family Physicians (SEMG) focused on developments and challenges in persistent COVID research, as well as the use of emerging substances of abuse among youth. These specialists will be in La Coruña until Saturday, working on other nutrition-related topics such as eating disorders.
Sonia Villapol, neuroscientist and senior professor at the Center for Neuroregeneration and Department of Neurosurgery at Houston Methodist Hospital Research Institute, insisted on the need to standardize diagnostic criteria to better identify and treat patients with persistent COVID..
In a meeting with the media, Villapol explained that progress in understanding and treating persistent COVID is “progressing,” with “important research being devoted to uncovering its mechanisms, identifying those at risk, and developing effective treatments.” However, “Standardization of diagnostic criteria is necessary to better identify and manage patients with persistent COVID.“, which will “help” “provide comprehensive care” to these patients,” he emphasized.
So, despite this, he insisted on the ongoing underfunding of these investigations. “Administrators must invest resources to address the concerns of these patients.” So, he explained in detail thatThis is a problem that will become chronic, so he asked for urgent “action as soon as possible.”.
Long COVID can include up to 200 symptoms such as fatigue, brain fog, shortness of breath and cardiovascular problems that occur weeks or months after infection.-, among other things. Current research focuses on immune activation, autoimmunity, viral persistence, tissue damage, or microbiological dysbiosis, according to SEMG.
REiCOP calls for increased investment in research
For her part, the president of the Spanish Research Network on Persistent COVID (REiCOP), Pilar Rodríguez Ledo, who appreciated Villapol’s presence, also insisted that the researchers’ problems due to funding require a lot of will to solve these problems. needs. “Spain must invest in this particular program,” he said.
Rodriguez clarified that “there are no recent records of people affected by persistent COVID, only rough estimates.” At the same time, he recalled that in the first waves the percentage of such patients “was very high,” later “stabilized at 9 percent and decreased slightly to 7 percent.” Thus, it is estimated that there are 1 million patients in Spain and about 70 million worldwide.
Finally, Rodríguez recalled that the network will be two years old in September and will hold a science day to present research projects. REiCOP added new additions: 68 organizations and 10 patient groups. The SEMG Research and Training Fund will also establish two formal research groups on persistent COVID and respiratory diseases.
Use of new psychoactive substances among young people
The next topic that SEMG highlighted on the second day of the Congress was the use of new substances of abuse among youth. Thus, the head of the company’s mental health working group, Antonio Torres, emphasized that “From 2020 to 2022, ten new opioids appeared” As he explained in detail at a meeting with the media, “some of them are being studied for their illegalization.”
Regarding the proliferation of online purchasing of these substances, Torres warned that “This creates a very large market, making it difficult to track.” Thus, he reported that designer drugs pose a “big problem,” as he demonstrated with pink cocaine, which “can cause serious health problems or even death.”
Drug addiction treatment
Likewise, he focused on deaths. “Indirect deaths due to the use of these substances do not require forensic intervention or toxicology testing, so we do not know the overall data.“
In addition, Torres warned about medications that are used inappropriately. This was also influenced by Rafael Castro, a member of the SEMG mental health working group. “We are seeing more and more adverse events in emergency situations due to these substances and the abuse of these drugs.”
For this reason, Castro urged diagnosticians not to prescribe chronic treatments in the emergency room. ““We act on acute pain, not on the prescription of these treatments.”, abounded. Thus, he concluded by highlighting the lack of knowledge among emergency responders in treating this wide variety of substances under study.
You may also like…