What treatments are
effective for
methamphetamine abusers?
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At this time the most
effective treatments for
methamphetamine addiction
are cognitive behavioral
interventions. These
approaches are designed to
help modify the patient's
thinking, expectancies, and
behaviors and to increase
skills in coping with
various life stressors.
Methamphetamine recovery
support groups also appear
to be effective adjuncts to
behavioral interventions
that can lead to long-term
drug-free recovery.
There are currently no
particular pharmacological
treatments for dependence on
amphetamine or
amphetamine-like drugs such
as methamphetamine. The
current pharmacological
approach is borrowed from
experience with treatment of
cocaine dependence.
Unfortunately, this approach
has not met with much
success since no single
agent has proven efficacious
in controlled clinical
studies. Antidepressant
medications are helpful in
combating the depressive
symptoms frequently seen in
methamphetamine users who
recently have become
abstinent.
There are some established
protocols that emergency
room physicians use to treat
individuals who have had a
methamphetamine overdose.
Because hyperthermia and
convulsions are common and
often fatal complications of
such overdoses, emergency
room treatment focuses on
the immediate physical
symptoms. Overdose patients
are cooled off in ice baths,
and anticonvulsant drugs may
be administered also.
Acute methamphetamine
intoxication can often be
handled by observation in a
safe, quiet environment. In
cases of extreme excitement
or panic, treatment with
antianxiety agents such as
benzodiazepines has been
helpful, and in cases of
methamphetamine-induced
psychoses, short-term use of
neuroleptics has proven
successful.
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