SABRI
The
South African Brain Research Institute
Annual
Report for 2009 - 2010
ãSABRI’s PAN
therapy to be introduced to Australia and described as a major breakthrough for
treating substance abuse by Australians
ãSABRI’s
CEO commissioned to write book on nitrous oxide and neurotransmitters by USA publisher
ãSABRI’s
CEO appointed as editorial adviser to another international medical journal
South
African Brain Research Institute
Incorporated association not
for gain
Reg
No 1982/000063/08
PBO No 18/11/13/2888
Fund Raising No 001-356 NPO
6
Campbell St
Waverley
Johannesburg
2090
Gauteng,
South Africa
P
O Box 1315
Highlands
North 2037
Johannesburg
South
Africa
Telephone (011) 786-2912
Fax
(011) 786-1766 E-mail: mag@sabri.org..za
Website www.sabri.org.za
BENEFICIARY
OF: NATIONAL LOTTERY DISTRIBUTION TRUST
The
important task of introducing the psychotropic analgesic nitrous oxide (PAN)
therapy into the public hospital sector in South
Africa remains the main thrust of SABRI’s endeavours. Introduction of the therapy into the public
sector has been a major ambition of SABRI almost since it’s foundation in 1982.
The first important milestone along this journey was the recognition by the
Director General of the Department of Health and Social Services in Mpumalanga, Dr C Moloko.
He had the foresight to acknowledge SABRI’s breakthrough in discovering the use
of PAN for treating substance abuse as well as its previously proven usefulness
for minor surgery. He also realised the practical importance of applying it in
the public sector. When the decision was taken to introduce PAN into public
hospitals nobody at SABRI had the vaguest idea of what lay ahead. Nobody could have foreseen the number of
obstacles that would be rolled out by government bureaucracy to obfuscate and
retard progressing this innovation. The sad thing is that by slowing the progress
into the public sector, these incompetents are preventing those in most need, i.e.
the underprivileged and previously disadvantaged from benefiting from this safe
and cost-effective medical intervention. The fact that we have progressed as far as we
have, is a great tribute to SABRI’s perseverance; after years of chipping away
at the resistance offered by wooden, unimaginative governmental officials and their
equally stilted medical personnel. This
obstructive behaviour and lack of willingness to go beyond the banal has made
SABRI’s task fraught. The most difficult aspect to accept is that the lack of foresight
and obstruction has usually originated from the stern mindless opposition of
medically qualified personnel who are unable to grasp the fact that a
home-grown South African medical discovery has any value. Of course, there have
been a number of exceptions, but these are few in number indeed. However, at last, despite the limitations
alluded to, there is progress.
In
spite of its important work for South African public health, education and advances
into the public sector, SABRI is still chronically short of funding. Notwithstanding,
SABRI’s continues to contribute to international brain research.
The
introduction of the PAN into the public sector clearly has major social and
economic benefits for South Africa
and indeed Africa. As the number of hospitals
using the approach increases, the savings to the governmental medical services
will rise exponentially (see below). With no
commercial sponsorship and opposition from vested interests, raising donations
for SABRI’s work has become increasingly difficult. The fact that PAN is ideally
suited for use, not only in hospitals but also primary health care facilities, is
still not extensively recognised by potential donors. A fact that is most surprising since we are a Third World country that recognises the need for
‘low-tech’ economical methods. The PAN technique is indeed ‘low-tech’ and has a
successful track history of over 25 years in primary health care facilities in
rural and urban localities. An excellent
example is that PAN was used successfully and safely by trained nursing sisters
for over 15 years in Dirkiesdorp. The latter is a tiny village between Piet
Retief and Wakkerstroom. Although the gases were administered by
nurses, the nearest supervising physician, who visited the site once per month only,
was situated in Newcastle
90 kilometres distant. Apart from PAN’s
use in rural settings, many thousands of people have benefited from the PAN
therapy, in South Africa, Europe and North America. Despite our continuing difficulty in
raising funds, we are grateful for the support received from our existing and
past donors, listed at the end of the annual report.
SOUTH AFRICAN PROGRESS
On the local front, the CEO of SABRI, continues to train
health professionals at the University
of Limpopo’s Medunsa
Campus, although he only spends a few weeks teaching there every year.
The work in Mpumalanga
has progressed further. Indeed, a training course will be conducted at the Rob Ferreira
Hospital, to train health
personnel, which is the main public hospital in the province. Rob Ferreira has purchased two new PAN
machines and these will be installed soon.
During the year numerous CPD (Continuing Professional
Development) courses and lectures on PAN were given by the CEO. This included one each for the staff at Kalafong Hospital in Tshwane and to primary health care
professionals of the Gauteng Department of Health at the Carel Kruger
Building in Pretoria
The instructional book on using PAN for treating
nicotine addiction funded by the South African Dental Association (SADA) and
the South African Medical Association (SAMA) will be published shortly. Now perhaps, it might be worthwhile to give readers
a brief outline of the project that has formed the major thrust of SABRI over
the last years.
Psychotropic
Analgesic Nitrous oxide (PAN) for Hospital & Primary Health Care Centres
for Minor Surgery and Acute
Addictive Withdrawal
States
Substance abuse
is a chronic, devastating and debilitating disease, with serious social,
psychological, economic and physical implications for the individual and the
community. For instance, HIV-AIDS transmission is increased by the risk- taking
behaviour associated with substance abuse and the progression of the disease is
also increased because substance abuse compromises the immune system and decreases
compliance with anti-retroviral medications.
The problem of
substance abuse is greater than ever before, hence the need for more effective treatments.
The Project
1) Health professionals from organisations
will be trained to administer PAN to enhance and complement treatment that they
provide to substance abusers, hence facilitating recovery. Recovery is positive
for the individual and society, including the prevention of HIV transmission
and increasing the survival of those already infected.
2) All who are trained will also be able
to administer PAN in the identical manner at the same healthcare centre to
relax patients and control pain during minor surgery, avoiding costly hospital
admissions and general anaesthetics.
What is PAN?
PAN
is the use of nitrous oxide (laughing gas) and oxygen to successfully treat
addiction. This treatment is unique in S.A. Medical History being the first
therapy officially recognised by the medical authorities, which had been wholly
conceptualised, researched and developed in S.A. without overseas input. SABRI has published over 150 scientific
contributions on the PAN therapy in prestigious journals including BMJ, Lancet
and American Journal of Medicine. Many thousands of patients both nationally
and internationally have benefited.
Although
counselling, support groups and other interventions are extremely important,
these alone are often insufficient to break the physical and psychological
dependence on drugs such as alcohol, cannabis (dagga), benzodiazepines (Valium,
Librium, etc.), cocaine, heroin, methaqualone (Mandrax) and nicotine.
Withdrawal
symptoms and craving following abstinence from these drugs weakens the will of
even the strongest person trying to ‘kick’ the habit, making them very
susceptible to relapse. On average, 90% of substance abusers relapse and begin reusing
within days or months of being detoxified (i.e. removal of offending drug from
the patient’s system); largely due to craving. These repeated detoxifications put
great pressure on our already overcrowded hospitals.
The
PAN treatment offers a medically proven, cost-effective and safe tool for
breaking the cycle of addiction. Those treated with PAN can continue being economically
and socially active. The care-givers, who often themselves
are discouraged by relapses, and the community, will have a powerful, readily
available and accessible means of combating substance abuse and relapse
prevention. PAN has an unrivalled safety record and can be used over the short
period needed without harm.
A
nursing sister using PAN can treat patients inexpensively as outpatients, without
direct physician supervision, avoiding costly hospital admissions. Hospital
bed-occupations, average R1255 per day and withdrawal treatments require at
least 3 days. The PAN therapy avoids at
least 90% of inpatient detoxification therapies, as shown wherever it has been
introduced. Together with the savings if PAN is also substituted for general
anaesthetics for minor surgery, a small investment i.e. R143 000, for each
site, will result in savings of 2.15 million Rand per site/per annum in
unnecessary bed occupations and medical personnel costs for surgery and
detoxifications.
The
necessary equipment is commercially available and can be installed within days
of payment. A new site can be fully
operational within 6 weeks of equipment installation.
SABRI'S
INTERNATIONAL COLLABORATIONS
The highlight of SABRI’s activities this year was the
visit of two distinguished Australian visitors. Dr J Gelb, expert on ‘crisis psychiatry’
and respected consumerist Mr P Darroch. Dr Gelb has conducted a weekly Mental
Health segment on radio in Australia
and has a special interest in substance abuse. Mr Darroch is on the prestigious
Cochrane Collaboration Consumer Network related to substance abuse and has an
interest in scientific misconduct. They visited three Eastern Province
clinics to assess the PAN substance abuse therapy. Both stated that the use of
PAN was a major breakthrough in the treatment of substance abuse and will introduce
the PAN therapy to Australia
in the near future.
SABRI’s CEO has
been commissioned by a U.S.A publisher to write the book titled
‘Neurotransmitters involved in the actions of nitrous oxide’ and was appointed to
the editorial board of another international scientific journal (Aging Health).
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
SABRI
acknowledges with the thanks, the many unnamed individuals who have contributed
to SABRI’s continued success. . Mr Eddie
Maduna Chief of Administration of SABRI has worked with his usual quite
efficiency and deserves much thanks. The generous support of our sponsors is
gratefully acknowledged. We thank them all!
Professor Mark A
Gillman
Chief Executive
Officer
1.
Anglo
American and De Beers Chairman's Fund
2.
First
National Bank of SA Ltd
3.
JCI Ltd
4.
Standard
Bank Group Ltd
5.
Allied
Building Society
6.
Afrox Ltd
7.
Sage
Holdings Ltd
8.
Barlow
Rand Ltd
9.
Liberty
Life Group Community Fund
10.
Watters
Stationery (Pty) Ltd
11.
Booth
Bequest
12.
Anglovaal
Ltd
13.
Times
Media Ltd
14.
MSD (Pty)
Ltd
15.
Lifegro
Assurance Ltd
16.
The
Premier Group Charitable
Community Trust
17.
Suncrush
Ltd
18.
Everite
Ltd
19.
Blue
Circle Ltd
20.
Elcentre
Corporation Ltd
21.
IGI Ltd
22.
Rank
Xerox Ltd
23.
Clicks
Stores
24.
Wilson-Rowntree (Pty) Ltd
25.
Investec
Bank Ltd
26.
Wooltru
Ltd
27.
Nashua
Vaal Ltd
28.
Algorax
Ltd
29.
Max Paiken Printers
30.
Magnum
Airlines Ltd
31.
Federale
Volksbeleggings Ltd
32.
Ingersoll-Rand
Co SA (Pty) Ltd
33.
E.R.
Bernard & Associates
34.
The
Robert Niven Trust
35.
Romens
Holdings Ltd
36.
Aroma
Liquor Holdings Ltd
37.
AECI Ltd
38.
M & S
Spitz Footwear Holdings Ltd
39.
The
Foschini Group Ltd
40.
Samancor
Ltd
41.
Industrial
Development
Corporation of SA
42.
S.A.
Medical Research Council
43.
PFV Group
Management Services
(Pty) Ltd
44.
Mathieson
& Ashley Holdings Ltd
45.
The Lion
Matches Co. Ltd
46.
Langerberg
Foods Ltd
47.
Pick
& Pay Stores Ltd
48.
National
Beverage
Service (Pty) Ltd
49.
National
Discount House
of SA Ltd
50.
Wyeth-Ayerst
(Pty) Ltd
51.
The Spar
Guild of SA
52.
Associated
Diesel Co. (Pty) Ltd
53.
The Good
Year Tyre
& Rubber Co
54.
The Mannie Auctioneering
55.
Malbak
Ltd
56.
JHI Ltd
57.
Eskel
Jawitz
58.
Total SA
59.
Datacraft
60.
Nicholas
Yale cc
61.
Mercantile
& General
Reinsurance Co. of SA
62.
Late Mr M
Pelkowitz
63.
J D Group
Ltd
64.
Access
Security
65.
Carlton
Paper of SA
66.
Upjohn
(Pty) Ltd
67.
D P I
Plastic (Pty) Ltd
68.
Momentum
Life Assurers Ltd
69.
S M Paiker
70.
Union
Mosaic Tiles (Pty) Ltd
71.
Truworths
72.
Metro
Group Ltd
73.
Walter A Chipkin (Pty) Ltd
74.
Saficon
Investment Ltd
75.
Afrolympic
Travels (Pty) Ltd
76.
Medsed
77.
Market Toyota
78.
Nashua
Ltd
79.
Rio
Tinto Management Services
80.
Vinuchi
(Pty) Ltd
81.
Sandra
Michele Lampert
82.
Mobil SA
Energy Co Ltd
83.
Ellies
Electronics
84.
Sentrachem
Ltd
85.
Fred C Smollan (Pty) Ltd
86.
Calvert
Removals (Pty) Ltd
87.
ATC (Pty)
Ltd
88.
Perm
89.
Sanlam
90.
Caltex
Oil (SA) (Pty) Ltd
91.
Bankorp
Ltd
92.
Greenfield
Manufacturing Co (Pty) Ltd
93.
Johnson
Matthey (Pty) Ltd
94.
OK
Bazaars Ltd
95.
Fedlife
Assurance Ltd
96.
Top Life
97.
L. Suzman Distributors (Pty) Ltd
98.
NBS
Holdings Ltd
99.
Norwich
Life SA Ltd
100. Unitrans
Ltd
101. Bushfeld
Flowers
102. Emmanuels
Personnel
103. Safmarine
104. SA
Press Cutting Agency
105. T
& N Holdings Ltd
106. The
Bidvest Group Ltd
107. Group
Five Ltd
108. The
R B Hagart
Trust
109. Nedcor
Ltd
110. Kempston
Truck Hire Ltd
111. Foundation
for Research Development
112. Lundbeck
South Africa (Pty) Ltd
113. Scaw
Metals Ltd
114. Trident
Steel (Pty) Ltd
115. Sappi
Ltd
116. African
Life Assurance Co Ltd
117. (Metboard) The Stella & Paul Loewenstein
Trust
118. Rheem
South Africa
119. Guardian
National Insurance Co Ltd
120. African
Sales Co (Pty) Ltd
121. Irvin
& Johnson Ltd
122. Werkmans
Attorneys
123. JH
Isaacs Group Ltd
124. The
Hans Merensky Foundation
125. Anglo-Alpha
Ltd
126. Slavepak
Holdings (Pty) Ltd
127. SAB
128. Malcolm
& Gladys Cameron Foundation
129.
M.I.B.
Group (Pty) Ltd
130.
Boardman
Bros (Pty) Ltd
131.
Da
Gama Textile Ltd
132.
Sandoz
Products (Pty) Ltd
133.
Pfizer
Products (Pty) Ltd
134.
Eli Lilly
(SA) (Pty) Ltd
135.
Nestle
(SA) (Pty) Ltd
136.
Decor
Group
137.
Ernest
Joseph & Co (Pty) Ltd
138.
Barbizon
Tea and Coffee Ltd
139.
Gencor
Develpoment Trust
140.
UU Net
Internet Africa
141.
The PG
Foundation
142.
IBM South
Africa
143.
Chemical
Services Ltd
144.
The Wartenweiler Trust
145.
Engen
Petroleum Limited
146.
The E Bellairs Charitable Trust
147.
Rhone-Poulenc
Rorer S.A. (Pty) Ltd
148.
SmithKline
Beecham Pharmaceutical (Pty) Ltd.
149.
The Carl
& Emily Fuchs Foundation
150.
Rex Trueform Clothing Co
Ltd
151.
Compu-Clearing
(Pty) Ltd
152.
Peregrine
Structuring (Pty) Ltd
153.
Billiton
Development Trust
154.
Metropolis
Transactive (Pty) Ltd
155.
Sasol
S.A. Ltd
156.
Gold Reef
City Casino
157.
Bequest
Late Mr LA Marks
158.
Data Pro
159.
Edward L.
Bateman Ltd
160.
Caxton Publishers
& Printers
161.
National
Lottery Distribution Trust Fund
162.
Hosken
Consolidated Investments Foundation
163.
Rainbow
Farms (Pty) Limited
164.
Ellerine
Holdings Limited
165.
Dentsply
SA
166.
Transnet
Foundation
167.
BOE
