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Background: There are many unique features related to substance abuse in the elderly, which is an underestimated problem in society. Objectives: A cross-sectional exploratory study was conducted in a North Indian tertiary care setting to assess the pattern of substance use in the elderly. Materials and Methods: Fifty cases were included in the study via purposive sampling; a Drug Abuse Monitoring System pro forma and a semistructured pro forma designed to gather information on sociodemographic and substance use characteristics were used. Descriptive statistics were applied. Continuous variables were summarized as means and standard deviations and categorical variables as counts and percentages. Results: The mean age of the samples was 64.12 ± 4.54 years. Alcohol use was noted in 66% of the cases, tobacco use in 76%, opioid use in 16%, cannabinoid use in 4%, and sedative/hypnotic use in 4%. Majority of the cases were married, studied up to high school, self-employed, and living in joint family. Majority of the cases had initiation of substance use in young age due to peer pressure, and the reason for change in pattern were in majority mainly family issues and tolerance. Majority of the cases were brought by family members for treatment seeking. Conclusions: The issue of substance abuse in elderly population is underestimated, and studies are scarce in finding the exact prevalence in the society.

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Although modern technologies have made life simpler, it has also intensified the complexity of psychopathology. The adoption of the Internet and its numerous artificial intelligence software products into morbid delusions is gaining more momentum. Clinicians must be alert about patients with delusions getting ideas and feedback from the social context in which they live. Here, we discuss a case about a young, single, high-school graduated male, with schizoid personality traits, socially withdrawn, dependent, sexually inhibited with a poor level of occupational and social functioning, who has developed erotomanic delusion with Google Assistant.

Background and Objectives: Injection drug usage is a major public health issue. The study is aimed to find the clinical profile and trends of injection drug usage in young people who attended de-addiction services at a tertiary care center in North India. Methods: This retrospective record review analyzed data from consecutive young-aged people attending de-addiction services at a tertiary care hospital in North India between 2015 and 2019. The sociodemographic data and clinical and injection-related characteristics were discerned from the data. Results: Out of 135 patients included in the analysis, 132 (97.8%) were male. There was a 13-fold rise in treatment seeking over the past 5 years (2015: 7 vs. 2019: 98). One hundred and thirty-two (97.8%) were male. High Risk behavior was present such as sharing of needles in 31 (22.9%), paraphernalia sharing in 24 (17.8%), 6 (4.4%) reported ever-having symptoms of sexually transmitted infection, 13 (9.6%) had sex with sex worker, 9 (6.7%) reported ever-having HIV screening, 6 (4.4%) reported having HIV positive status. Thirty-two (23.7%) reported having previous treatment for drug abuse and 13 (9.6%) reported previously being hospitalized for drug abuse. Heroin usage has been present in 96 (71.1%) followed by pentazocine usage in 19 (14.1%). Conclusion: Our findings revealed that treatment-seeking young age population (the WHO defined age group 15–24 years) from the defined geographical location has been showing an increasing trend in injecting drug user usage along with greater injection and sexual risk behaviors associated with it. This can be used to design the public health strategy to educate regarding avoiding injection drug-related practices.