A dramatic increase, up to 60%, in the use of antidepressants and antipsychotics from March ’19 to November ’21 is found by a study of the Department of Chemistry of EKPA, according to what the head of the research team, professor of analytical Chemistry Nikolaos Thomas at the FM Agency. As for cocaine, its use remains from the summer of 2020 to a decade high, has increased around 60% from 2019 and concerns about 2% of the population of Attica, as reported by Mr. Thomaidis. “The analyzes we do at the Wastewater Treatment Center in Psyttalia, showed us that from November ’20 to November ’21, there was an additional increase in the use of anxiolytics (mainly benzodiazepines, with oxazepam being the champion) of of 36%, compared to March ’20. These levels decreased in the following period, in the summer of ’21, and the same use reappeared again in November of ’21. That is, from the continuous analysis of wastewater that we do since March 2020, it seems that the use of anxiolytics has a periodicity. It increases from November to March and then decreases “.
At very high levels the use of paracetamol
The same periodicity occurs to a lesser extent in antidepressants, according to the professor. “However, their levels are similar to the first record (which compared to ’19 had increased by some drastic around 60%) and peaked again in March ’21, in the prolonged lockdown that we had since November ’20 ». As for antipsychotics, there was a large increase during the great economic crisis in ’14 and ’15, but after this difficult period there was a slight decline in their use, says Mr. Thomaidis, to then add that ” on March 21 there was an increase of 58% compared to March ’19 “. In the first period of the pandemic in 2020 from the analyzes in the sewage, the team of Professor Thomaidis observed a large increase in antibiotics and antibiotics. After the first period, they showed a relative decrease, because, as he explains, he changed the cocktail of medicines given by doctors in hospitals. However, he points out that the use of paracetamol remains at very high levels. “And in fact it is interesting to find that it also has its peak in January to March of ’21, in summer there is a fall and then a rise again.”
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