The Drug Dependence Treatment Centre, AIIMS was established in the year 1988 and was functional from the premises of the Deen Dayal Upadhyay Hospital, New Delhi. In 2003, it was upgraded as a National Centre on Treatment, Training and Research in the field of Addictions under the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare , Government of India and moved to its present location in Ghaziabad, Uttar Pradesh as the National Drug Dependence Treatment Centre (NDDTC). NDDTC functions as a specialty unit of the Department of Psychiatry, AIIMS, New Delhi and is a designated National Resource Centre under the Drug De-addiction Programme (DDAP) , Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Government of India and a WHO Regional Collaborating Centre for Substance Abuse. It is also the coordinating centre for training programme for medical officers under the scheme implemented by Department of Revenue, Ministry of Finance and the National Technical Training Centre for National AIDS Control Organization , Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Government of India.

NDDTC has multi-disciplinary faculty and staff (psychiatrists, pre-clinical scientists, biostatisticians, social scientists, research staff, nursing staff, laboratory personnel and administrative staff) to undertake the responsibilities assigned to the centre. Clinical care is provided through outpatient, inpatient settings and community clinics. Help is available for the treatment of disorders related to use of all types of psychoactive substances. Treatment is provided by a multi-disciplinary team of experienced professional combining both pharmacological (i.e. with medications) and non-pharmacological (i.e. psychological / social) approaches. The centre carries out the relevant haematological, biochemical laboratory tests to monitor health damage. Further, several drugs of abuse are screened simultaneously through analysis of patients’ urine sample.

The centre has been involved in:

• Assessing magnitude of drug abuse in the country
• Providing clinical care to patients - hospital and community based -through daily OPD, special clinics, ward and community clinics in underdeveloped areas of Delhi
• Health education for prevention and early identification of drug abuse
• Manpower development – training of several categories of staff
• Establishment of laboratory to detect drugs of abuse in body fluids and health damage
• Documentation, publication of resource material and creation of database
• Scientific research on various epidemiological, public health and clinical aspects of addictions

The Centre provides clinical care to about 10000 new patients and about 50000 follow-up patients every year. In addition, the centre runs special clinics like Tobacco use cessation clinic, Dual diagnosis, Adolescent clinic, Clinic for women and a clinic catering to Behavioural addictions.

Role in National Survey

NDDTC, AIIMS is the lead technical agency, chosen by the MSJE, Govt. of India , and is responsible for conceptualization of the survey, planning the scientific aspects including methodology and technical coordination among all the collaborators at the National and Regional level. While NDDTC, AIIMS will take the lead in scientific and technical aspects of the survey and partner with other medical institutes of repute for this purpose, the operational and management responsibilities for data collection for the survey will be discharged by the MSJE, National Institute of Social Défense (NISD), NDDTC, Other Medical Institutes, State Governments and MSJE nominated NGOs in a collaborative manner.

At NDDTC, AIIMS a team of investigators is responsible for the technical aspects of this survey. The team of researchers includes:

Roles and Responsibilities of NDDTC, AIIMS:

• Conceptualization of the survey and developing scientific protocol, survey questionnaire, record keeping and reporting mechanisms
• Selection of strata in the states, districts within strata and PSUs within the districts as per the statistical methodology outlined in project document
• Selection of Households within a PSU after completion of mapping / listing
• Engagement of other collaborating regional medical institutions
• Receipt of funds from MSJE and disbursement of funds to Regional Medical Institutions
• Preparing criteria / TORs for selection of IRCAs by RRTCs, State-level Master Trainers (by Regional Medical Institutes) and Data Collection Staff (to be nominated by respective State Govt.)
• Development of resource materials for the survey (training agenda, presentations, handouts, pre-and post-training assessments, technical manuals for household and RDS surveys, etc.)
• Development of operational manuals for HHS and RDS surveys
• Working with the IT team and guiding the development of survey software
• Conducting National Training of Trainers for all institutions and organizations involved in the survey
• Facilitating Regional Training of Trainers for Master Trainers identified by States/UT Govt.
• Supervision and monitoring of other collaborating institutions engaged for technical and operational aspects of the survey
• Leading conceptualization, development of scientific protocol, questionnaire, training, implementation and analysis of 4 of the 9 Focused Thematic Studies (FTS) and supervising implementation of the remaining 5 FTSs by collaborating regional medical institutions
• Overseeing ethical aspects of the survey at National level including ethics clearance from AIIMS and facilitating clearance from IEC of partnering medical institutions
• Analysis of survey data, interpretation, preparation of draft report
• Finalization of the report
• Technical assistance to MSJE in dissemination of survey findings and their incorporation into the National Drug Demand Reduction Strategy
• Dissemination of survey findings in scientific and technical forums