Meth Addiction and Mental Health Problems

1. Meth and the Brain
2. Meth and Depression
3. Meth and Psychosis
4. Meth and Anxiety or Anxiety Disorders
5. Meth and ADHD
6. Sources

Complications of Meth Abuse

Methamphetamine – or simply, meth – is a central nervous system stimulant drug that can lead to severe social, occupational, legal and health consequences. Aside from a spectrum of potential physical health concerns, meth users frequently experience co-occurring mental health issues.

The symptoms of meth addiction can exacerbate the symptoms of co-occurring mental health conditions—including anxiety and depression.

• A co-occurring mental health disorder can complicate a user’s ability to get help and stay sober if they are not getting integrated treatment, i.e., dual diagnosis interventions that aim to address both conditions simultaneously.
• Users may feel they are blocking troublesome psychiatric symptoms by using meth (i.e., self-medicating) and this erroneous thought process makes it difficult to stop using the drug.
  

It is important to understand how meth impacts a person’s mental health and to know the type of treatment options that are available to fully address these issues.

• Having an addiction to meth and also suffering from a mental health problem like depression or bipolar disorder is called a dual diagnosis.
• According to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), people with co-occurring disorders are more difficult to treat due to treatment adherence problems.
  
• SAMHSA also reports that people with co-occurring disorders are more likely to have poorer treatment outcomes than people with either disorder alone.
  

Successful treatment must address these issues concurrently. If you are suffering from mental health issues due to your meth use or addiction, or vice versa, it's time to get help. Please call 1-888-993-3112Who Answers? to find a comprehensive program that suits your needs. Be sure to ask about dual-diagnosis treatment. 

Meth and the Brain

The biochemical actions of meth in the brain serve to increase the activity of dopamine—a neurotransmitter that is instrumental in an individual’s motivation, pleasure and various motor functions. The increase in dopamine helps to impart feelings of reward or pleasure, which can be incredibly reinforcing. The pleasurable effects and euphoric sensations of a drug high can strongly motivate persistent drug use behavior in order to repeat the experience.

Long-term meth use may lead to impairments in memory, learning, psychomotor abilities and informational processing.

• According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), chronic meth users show structural and functional alterations in areas of their brains associated with emotion and memory; this may underlie their vulnerability to experiencing emotional and cognitive problems.
  
• Long-term use can lead to dopamine transport reduction within the nervous system—an alteration that would help explain some of the motor and cognitive impairments associated with meth use.
  
• It is estimated that adults with a serious mental illness (e.g., major depressive disorder, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, etc.) are more than eight times more likely to have a co-occurring illicit drug dependence than those without mental illness.
  

Some research shows that cognitive deficits and anhedonia (reduced ability to perceive pleasure) can last for months following discontinuation of meth use.

• Biological, psychological and social stressors also increase the vulnerability to addiction.
  

Meth and Depression

Depression is perhaps the most common co-occurring mental health disorder seen amongst meth users.

• Epidemiological data indicate that approximately 40 percent of adults using amphetamines have a lifetime history of depression.
  
• Intravenous meth users reported more depressive symptoms compared to users who smoked or snorted meth.
  
• With chronic meth use, dopamine levels and activity can become severely depleted in the brain, resulting in a condition called anhedonia or an impaired ability to experience pleasure.
  

Some of the features of depression – such as isolation and lack of motivation – make participation in some recovery and treatment activities nearly impossible if left untreated.

• Meth addiction and co-occurring depression can increase your vulnerability to self-harming behaviors and suicidal thoughts.
  
• Studies show the antidepressant bupropion can reduce cue-induced cravings and may be useful in managing depressive effects of meth use.
  
• Combining effective medications with motivational interviewing and cognitive-behavioral therapy can increase the chances of successful recovery from both disorders.
  

Attempts to treat the depression without treating the meth use or vice versa are often unsuccessful. You may experience temporary relief from both disorders but a relapse in one frequently results in the relapse of the other disorder. If you have meth addiction and a co-occurring mental health issue, you need comprehensive treatment. Call  1-888-993-3112Who Answers? to assess inpatient treatment options.

If you’d like to know whether your insurance may cover the full or partial cost of substance abuse rehabilitation programs at one of American Addiction Centers’ various rehab centers across the states, simply fill in your information in the form below.

Meth and Psychosis

Schizophrenia is perhaps one of the most recognizable mental health disorders with psychosis as a defining feature. Meth-induced psychosis can easily be misdiagnosed as schizophrenia, as the outward signs of both can be very difficult to distinguish.

Meth use can exacerbate psychotic symptoms in someone diagnosed with schizophrenia but chronic use can also lead to meth-induced psychosis. Both schizophrenia and meth-induced psychosis are associated with higher criminal justice referrals and lengthy treatment.

• Up to 46 percent of people using meth on a regular basis report meth-induced psychosis.
• Clinical evidence suggests “meth runs or binges” are likely to end in symptoms resembling psychosis.

• 
  According to some research, there is an underlying genetic vulnerability that may link schizophrenia and meth-induced psychosis. Seven genes have been identified in association with meth-induced psychosis. Six of these genes are linked to susceptibility.
• 
  Schizophrenic patients have a high vulnerability to developing psychosis-type symptoms with low exposure to amphetamines, like cocaine. Similarly, users with amphetamine-induced psychosis have a high vulnerability to develop a primary psychosis-like syndrome.

Meth-induced psychosis can be characterized by both negative and positive syndromes.

• Negative psychotic features includes speech poverty, psychomotor retardation and a flat affect (emotional blunting).
  
• Positive psychotic features include some of the more commonly seen signs and symptoms such as persecutory delusions, auditory and visual hallucinations and incoherent speech.
  
• Typically, symptoms of meth-induced psychosis can completely resolve with abstinence from meth.
  

Meth and Anxiety or Anxiety Disorders

Don’t wait Meth dependence with a mental health condition requires treatment. You can get better.

Anxiety is another common symptom among meth users; it occurs during both active use and withdrawal. According to a 2010 study in the American Journal of Addiction:

• More than 75 percent of meth users reported symptoms of anxiety.
  
• 40 percent of meth users seeking treatment reported a history of anxiety disorders.
  
• 25 percent of meth addicts still met criteria for a current anxiety disorder up to three years following outpatient drug treatment.
  
• The two most common anxiety disorders seen were Generalized Anxiety Disorder followed by Social Anxiety Disorder.
  

Meth users with a dually-diagnosed anxiety disorder had significantly greater odds of being hospitalized than meth users without an anxiety disorder. Further, the odds of having attempted suicide once or more during their lifetime was three times higher in those with a dual diagnosis of meth dependence and anxiety compared to those with meth dependence alone.

• 
  Treating anxiety disorders with benzodiazepines can be increasingly difficult if you are addicted to meth. This is because there is an increased likelihood you will abuse or become secondarily addicted to benzodiazepines. Non-benzodiazepine and non-addictive medications are safer alternatives.

Meth and ADHD

Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, or ADHD, is broken into three subtypes: hyperactive, inattentive and combined.

• Adolescents and adults diagnosed with ADHD may be at an increased risk of meth use and abuse because of their increased likelihood of previous exposure to stimulant medications.
• Stimulant drugs – such as Adderall, Ritalin, and Vyvanse – are often prescribed to treat symptoms of ADHD.

Some treated individuals may progress from therapeutic use of these prescription drugs to abuse of them, thereby providing an incentive to one day switch to use of an illegal drug with similar effects.

• In 2008, 2.8 million adults were prescribed a stimulant to treat symptoms of ADHD.
  
• Meth can work in a similar way to prescription stimulants in relieving symptoms of ADHD.
  
• Patients presenting to treatment for meth addiction may complain of these symptoms resurfacing.
  
• Some research indicates that meth users with childhood ADHD behaviors were more likely to experience meth-induced psychosis.
  
• Other research examining lifetime diagnoses of ADHD, show that ADHD is significantly more prevalent in meth users at 21 percent compared to 6 percent of non-meth users.
  

In addition to treating depression and reducing cravings, the antidepressant Wellbutrin has been shown to be effective at treating symptoms of ADHD.

• This could be a significant pharmacological resource in treating ADHD and meth use.
  
• A non-stimulant medication to treat ADHD, combined with behavioral treatment and 12-Step support groups may be the best course of treating co-occurring meth addiction and ADHD.
  

Sources

1. Bramness, J.G., Gundersen, O.H., Guterstam, J., Rognli, E.B., Konstenius, M., Loberg, E.S., Medhus, S., Tanum, L. & Franck, J. (2012). Amphetamine-induced psychosis. BMC Psychiatry, 12(221), 1-3.

2. Eslami-Shahrbabaki, M., Fekrat, A. & Mazhari, S. (2015). A study of the prevalence of psychiatric disorders in patients with methamphetamine-induced psychosis. Addiction & Health, 7(1-2), 37-46.

3. Glasner-Edwards, S., Marinelli-Casey, P., Hillhouse, M., Ang, A., Mooney, L.J., and Rawson, R. (2010). Anxiety disorders among methamphetamine dependent adults: Association with posttreatment functioning. American Journal of Addiction, 19(5), 385-390.

4. Glasner-Edwards, S., Marinelli-Casey, P., Hillhouse, M., Ang, A., Mooney, L.J., and Rawson, R. (2009). Depression among methamphetamine users. Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease, 197(4), 225-231.

5. Grant, K.M., LeVan, T.D., Wells, S.M., Li, M., Stoltenberg, S.F., Gendelman, H.E., Carlo, G. & Bevins, R.A. (2012). Methamphetamine-Associated psychosis. Journal of Neuroimmune Pharmacology, 7(1), 113-139.

6. Hellem, T.L., Sung, Y.H., Pett, M.A., Latendresse, G., Morgan, J., Huber, R.S., Kuykendall, D., Lundberg, K.J. & Renshaw, P.F. (2015). Creatine as a novel treatment for depression in females using methamphetamine: A pilot study. Journal of Dual Diagnosis. Online publication retrieved from http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26457568.

7. National Institute on Drug Abuse. (2014). DrugFacts: Methamphetamine. Retrieved from http://www.drugabuse.gov/publications/drugfacts/methamphetamine

8. Obermeit, L.C., Cattie, J.E., Bolden, K.A., Marquine, M.J., Morgan, E.E., Franklin Jr., D.R., Atkinson, J.H., Grant, I. & Woods, S.P. (2013). Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder among chronic methamphetamine users: Frequency, persistence, and adverse effects on everyday functioning. Addictive Behaviors, 38(12), 2874-2878.

9. Rawson, R.A. (2013). Current research on the epidemiology, medical and psychiatric effects, and treatment of methamphetamine use. Journal of Food and Drug Analysis, 21(4), 77-81.

10. Salo, R., Fassbender, C., Iosif, A.M., Ursu, S., Leamon, M.H. & Carter, C. (2013). Predictors of methamphetamine psychosis: History of ADHD-relevant childhood behaviors and drug exposure. Psychiatry Research, 210(2), 529-535.

11. Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. (2013). Behavioral Health, United States, 2012. HHS Publication No. SMA-13-4797, Rockville, MD: Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration.

12. Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. (2012). Mental Health, United States, 2010. HHS Publication No. SMA-12-4681, Rockville, MD: Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration.

13. Seddigh, R., Keshavarz-Akhlaghi, A.A. & Shariati, B. (2014). Treating methamphetamine-induced resistant psychosis with clozapine. Case Reports in Psychiatry, doi:10.1155/2014/845145.

14. Srisurapanont, M., Ali, R., Marsden, J., Sunga, A., Wada, K. & Monteiro, M. (2003). Psychotic symptoms in methamphetamine psychotic in-patients. International Journal of Neuropsychopharmacology, 6(4), 347-352.