ABU DHABI // The Arab tendency to dispense unsolicited and arbitrary advice in medical matters can risk putting friends and relatives on the path to addiction, psychiatrists warned yesterday.
"As Arabs, we act like we know everything and we are always insisting our opinion is fact," said Dr Mohammed Mousa, a consultant psychiatrist at Sheikh Khalifa Medical City (SKMC).
"Patients tend to self-medicate, or try a medicine that their friend or uncle or cousin or neighbour told them was the best ever and cured so-and-so of something or other, and the patient will listen to them instead of the doctor."
However some medications, wrongly administered, could become addictive, said Dr Mousa.
"Medication that is not taken under a doctor's supervision is very dangerous and a form of abuse," he said.
He added that it was not unusual for him to be prescribing a medication, only to be interrupted by a member of the patient's family recommending something else.
"This is especially harmful for patients who have a mental illness that needs specific treatment," he said.
Speaking yesterday at the last in a series of lectures on mental health illnesses at SKMC, Dr Mousa said the causes of addiction can be social, economical or physical.
Whatever the reason, it is the family's responsibility to be alert to the possibility, said Dr Rami al Shihabi, senior clinical psychologist at SKMC.
"Marital problems like fighting or divorce can affect children and leave them with scars; they have no security at home so they seek security elsewhere, making them vulnerable and the best customers of drug dealers," said Dr al Shihabi.
"Parents can be consumed with their problems and their unemployment and their fights and their business travel and have no idea what is happening with their kids," he said. "This is the wrong sort of environment."
Dr Mousa also warned that the summer doldrums can leave teenagers looking for distractions in all the wrong places.
"Children have to be kept busy or they will find trouble, whether through breaking into the cabinet where parents hide alcohol at home, or trying out a drug from peer pressure," he said.
The most important thing, according to Dr al Shihabi, was for awareness to start at home.
"Parents should not treat addiction as a taboo subject and, instead, keep bringing it up with their children, and using repetition to drive the message across," he said. "Otherwise, bad habits can turn into dangerous addictions without us even realising it."
@Email:hkhalaf@thenational.ae
The Indoor Cricket World Cup
When: September 16-23
Where: Insportz, Dubai
Indoor cricket World Cup:
Insportz, Dubai, September 16-23
UAE fixtures:
Men
Saturday, September 16 – 1.45pm, v New Zealand
Sunday, September 17 – 10.30am, v Australia; 3.45pm, v South Africa
Monday, September 18 – 2pm, v England; 7.15pm, v India
Tuesday, September 19 – 12.15pm, v Singapore; 5.30pm, v Sri Lanka
Thursday, September 21 – 2pm v Malaysia
Friday, September 22 – 3.30pm, semi-final
Saturday, September 23 – 3pm, grand final
Women
Saturday, September 16 – 5.15pm, v Australia
Sunday, September 17 – 2pm, v South Africa; 7.15pm, v New Zealand
Monday, September 18 – 5.30pm, v England
Tuesday, September 19 – 10.30am, v New Zealand; 3.45pm, v South Africa
Thursday, September 21 – 12.15pm, v Australia
Friday, September 22 – 1.30pm, semi-final
Saturday, September 23 – 1pm, grand final
MOUNTAINHEAD REVIEW
Starring: Ramy Youssef, Steve Carell, Jason Schwartzman
Director: Jesse Armstrong
Rating: 3.5/5
Sole survivors
- Cecelia Crocker was on board Northwest Airlines Flight 255 in 1987 when it crashed in Detroit, killing 154 people, including her parents and brother. The plane had hit a light pole on take off
- George Lamson Jr, from Minnesota, was on a Galaxy Airlines flight that crashed in Reno in 1985, killing 68 people. His entire seat was launched out of the plane
- Bahia Bakari, then 12, survived when a Yemenia Airways flight crashed near the Comoros in 2009, killing 152. She was found clinging to wreckage after floating in the ocean for 13 hours.
- Jim Polehinke was the co-pilot and sole survivor of a 2006 Comair flight that crashed in Lexington, Kentucky, killing 49.
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THE DETAILS
Deadpool 2
Dir: David Leitch
Starring: Ryan Reynolds, Josh Brolin, Justin Dennison, Zazie Beetz
Four stars
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Our legal columnist
Name: Yousef Al Bahar
Advocate at Al Bahar & Associate Advocates and Legal Consultants, established in 1994
Education: Mr Al Bahar was born in 1979 and graduated in 2008 from the Judicial Institute. He took after his father, who was one of the first Emirati lawyers
Name: Peter Dicce
Title: Assistant dean of students and director of athletics
Favourite sport: soccer
Favourite team: Bayern Munich
Favourite player: Franz Beckenbauer
Favourite activity in Abu Dhabi: scuba diving in the Northern Emirates
Labour dispute
The insured employee may still file an ILOE claim even if a labour dispute is ongoing post termination, but the insurer may suspend or reject payment, until the courts resolve the dispute, especially if the reason for termination is contested. The outcome of the labour court proceedings can directly affect eligibility.
- Abdullah Ishnaneh, Partner, BSA Law
Fixtures (all times UAE)
Saturday
Brescia v Atalanta (6pm)
Genoa v Torino (9pm)
Fiorentina v Lecce (11.45pm)
Sunday
Juventus v Sassuolo (3.30pm)
Inter Milan v SPAL (6pm)
Lazio v Udinese (6pm)
Parma v AC Milan (6pm)
Napoli v Bologna (9pm)
Verona v AS Roma (11.45pm)
Monday
Cagliari v Sampdoria (11.45pm)
PRISCILLA
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Schedule for show courts
Centre Court - from 4pm UAE time
Johanna Konta (6) v Donna Vekic
Andy Murray (1) v Dustin Brown
Rafael Nadal (4) v Donald Young
Court 1 - from 4pm UAE time
Kei Nishikori (9) v Sergiy Stakhovsky
Qiang Wang v Venus Williams (10)
Beatriz Haddad Maia v Simona Halep (2)
Court 2 - from 2.30pm
Heather Watson v Anastasija Sevastova (18)
Jo-Wilfried Tsonga (12) v Simone Bolelli
Florian Mayer v Marin Cilic (7)
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