Drug Addiction in India and Its Treatment

Sik,?With reference to the article by Colonel Chopra in your March number on ' Drug addiction in India and its treatment the value of lecithin in the treatment of opium addicts does not appear to have been assessed at its proper value. When attending the Ninth Congress of the Far Eastern Association of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene at Nanking, one of the things which struck me most was the great advance which had been made in the treatment of opium addicts. In China this is an urgent economic problem, and as far as one could gather from the authorities, they think that a very practical method of treatment has at last been arrived at. The work done in the Antiopium Municipal Hospital, Nanking, seems to show that, in the average case, soya-bean lecithin, when administered in daily doses of 60 to 90 grains, produces spontaneous gradual discontinuity in the use of opium by the addict. The use of lecithin may be discontinued a few days after a complete stoppage of opium. The addict is not subjected to any discomfort. He is allowed his usual opium either for smoking or eating and a comfortable spontaneous recovery takes place within a few weeks. It is not for me to go into the details here as this has been done by the originator of the method. This work has been carried out under the Chinese National Opium Suppression Commission and all information may be obtained either from the research workers themselves or from Dr. J. Heng Liu, Chairman of that Commission and President of the Ninth Congress. This successful campaign against the opium habit struck me