A Medication-Assisted Treatment For Meth Addiction Shows Promise : Shots Health News : NPR

Researchers say overdose deaths linked to meth increased fourfold over the last decade. “We see it down in Alabama, Mississippi and the Kentucky area where it’s really taken off,” Donahue says. He added that lack of medical treatments for those addicted to meth has complicated efforts to curb demand for the drug. Volkow says one theory is that naltrexone reduced physiological cravings for meth, while buproprion’s “antidepressant effects” eased the anxiety people experience when they stop using. You can have serious side effects and health problems from drug use. Some can affect your physical appearance while others can be fatal.

Methamphetamine Research Report

The medically correct term for drug addiction is substance use disorder (SUD). However, it is important to note that although meth use does physically alter the brain, there is a difference between physical dependence and addiction. The researchers found that among the estimated 321,566 American children who lost a parent to overdose from 2011 to 2021, the highest numbers of deaths were among parents aged 26 to 40 (175,355 children) and among non-Hispanic white parents (234,164). The next highest numbers were children with Hispanic parents (40,062) and children with non-Hispanic Black parents (35,743), who also experienced the highest rate of loss and highest year-to-year rate increase, respectively.

• Unlike opioid addiction, for which medication-assisted treatment is the standard of care, no medication has been approved by the Food and Drug Administration for use with meth.
• Because the highs are intense and the lows are distressing, many meth users binge on the drug.
• Patients received injections of extended-release naltrexone and oral doses of bupropion.
• In addition to these Mexican “superlabs,” there are many small home labs in the U.
• If you or a loved one is addicted to meth, call us to learn about rehab options and start living the life you deserve.

Long-Term Effects and Risk of Meth

If someone has concerns that they or a loved one may have SUD, NIDA’s website can offer support and guidance to help them find a treatment program and manage their condition. Presently, there are no medications to help people recover meth addiction from meth-related SUD that have received approval from the United States Food and Drug Administration. Drug rehabilitation inpatient programs may offer assistance through the withdrawal process, helping a person to recover from SUD.

Commonly Used Drugs Charts

As a result, meth is commonly taken in a binge pattern, often called a “run,” where small amounts of meth are taken every few hours for a couple days to prolong the high. This pattern of use can more quickly lead to drug dependence and addiction. Since the treatment involves abstaining from the drug, the person may experience withdrawal symptoms such as fatigue, severe depression, anxiety, psychosis, and intense cravings for the drug during the detox process.

Addiction to methamphetamine introduces its own dangers and exacerbates many others. Skin sores and infections from picking, tooth decay and “meth mouth,” significant and unhealthy weight loss, and an increased risk for contracting an infectious or sexually transmitted disease are common side effects of methamphetamine addiction. People who regularly inject the drug may suffer from collapsed veins and a higher risk for contracting HIV/AIDS or hepatitis.

• Aftercare services or ongoing treatment provides the best chances of avoiding future relapse.
• The body can quickly become dependent on the chemicals, leading to methamphetamine addiction.
• Meth use and dependence can cause anxiety just as someone struggling with anxiety may take a drug like meth to self-medicate difficult symptoms of an anxiety disorder.
• But you may not think clearly when you’re high or make the same decisions as when you’re sober.

So, the cognitive abilities that don’t rely much on dopamine will likely recover first. Mental health symptoms like paranoia and delusions may take longer to disappear. The researchers then used these data to estimate the number of children of the nearly 650,000 https://ecosoberhouse.com/ people who died of an overdose in 2011 to 2021 based on the national mortality data from the CDC National Vital Statistics System. The data were examined by age group (18 to 25, 26 to 40, and 41 to 64 years old), sex, and self-reported race and ethnicity.

A combination of medications and therapeutic measures should be employed by highly trained medical, mental health, and addiction treatment professionals. Among adults reporting past-year methamphetamine use, an estimated 36.2%, 19.2%, 17.2%, and 27.3% reported using methamphetamine 1–29 days, 30–99 days, 100–199 days, and ≥200 days, respectively; 22.3% reported injecting methamphetamine (Figure). Approximately one half (52.9%) of adults who reported past-year methamphetamine use met diagnostic criteria for past-year methamphetamine use disorder. Among those with past-year methamphetamine use disorder, an estimated 31.5% received any substance use treatment within the past year. If snorting the drug in crystal meth form, the high will come on in three to five minutes; if swallowing methamphetamine, it can take 15 to 20 minutes. The drug’s effects can last anywhere from six to 12 hours, which can lead people to continue using to keep the high going.

The treatment helped 13.4% of patients with their addiction, compared with 2.5% of the placebo group. Your withdrawal symptoms will be strongest during the first 24 hours or so and typically last about 7-10 days. Usually, people who use crystal meth smoke it with a small glass pipe, but they may also swallow it, snort it, or inject it into a vein.

• Crystal methamphetamine, which people commonly shorten to “crystal meth” or simply “meth” is a form of methamphetamine that resembles fragments of bluish-white crystal or glass.
• If you inject meth with a needle, you also have a higher risk of contracting bloodborne viruses like hepatitis C.
• He added that lack of medical treatments for those addicted to meth has complicated efforts to curb demand for the drug.