They warn of the risks that patients who attend these clinics do not receive their medications.
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MEXICO CITY.
Right-holders with psychiatric illnesses denounced the shortage of risperidone, an antipsychotic medication, at the ISSSTE Neuropsychiatry Specialties Clinic and the Juárez Clinic, in the Roma neighborhood.
Testimonies collected from right-holders diagnosed with schizophrenia indicated that they had to buy their medications, however, some being unemployed said they had a hard time keeping up with the prescribed doses.
Augusto, who is 30 years old and was diagnosed 10 years ago, said that for two months he has had to buy the medicine with the help of his mother, since he was unemployed.
The young man explained that the risks of not taking the medicine consist of aggravating the symptoms and even having suicidal thoughts.
“The risk of not taking the medicine is that I suffer from schizophrenia, hear voices, have visual hallucinations, think that people are looking at me and talking about me, until I have suicidal thoughts,” he said.
The patient indicated that the cost of the patent drug is 900 pesos and generic is 500 pesos, and requires the medication every week.
Psychiatrists interviewed, but who asked to maintain their identity anonymity for fear of reprisals, reported that there is a shortage of citalopram, carbamazepine and two other psychiatric medications, which are antidepressants and anticonvulsants.
“It is urgent that the government understand the risk in which the patients are. The focus is on other diseases such as cancer, but patients with mental illness are also at risk, ”said an ISSSTE doctor.
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