Amphetamine Use Disorder

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Anchor lead: A new treatment for those with methamphetamine use disorder points to how big a problem this has become, Elizabeth Tracey reports

Methamphetamine use is responsible for a staggering number of drug overdoses in the western and midwestern United States, with a new study describing one intervention using two medications that may help. How do we account for so much methamphetamine use in some areas of the country while opioids predominate elsewhere? Eric Strain, a substance use disorders expert at Johns Hopkins, comments.

Strain: What are the circumstances early in trying a drug versus later when you’ve become habituated to its use. The circumstances under which somebody first uses a substance tend to be governed more by the social circumstances, there might be peer pressure or maybe they’re depressed, but then as the person hones in on using the substance I think its more what is going on with that person specifically, their genetic vulnerability, thing like that, as well as physical dependence. :31

Strain notes that in parallel with the pandemic, overdose deaths have also almost doubled, the latest CDC data report. At Johns Hopkins, I’m Elizabeth Tracey.