Drug use patterns and mental health of regular amphetamine users during a reported ‘heroin drought’

Abstract

Intervention research should evaluate the effectiveness of interventions aimed at: preventing transition to injecting and regular use of amphetamines; toward reducing levels of depression among amphetamine users and interventions among people with severe psychopathology and personality disorders; and toward reducing the prevalence of tobacco dependence among amphetamine users.

Methamphetamine use, dependence and treatment access in rural and regional North Coast of New South Wales, Australia

“…Most importantly, opioid injectors were heavily represented in the study, while crystalline methamphetamine smoking, which has recently become popular in several Australia cities, was uncommon. The high level of opioid injection is likely to reflect the uptake of methamphetamine injection among heroin injectors following the 2001 heroin shortage in Australia [17] and recruitment through drug-related health-care services. However, it is consistent with previous research that has found comparatively high levels of drug injection in rural areas [19,22] and methamphetamine use among opioid pharmacotherapy clients [36].…”

“…The majority of existing research has focused on populations of methamphetamine users living in major metropolitan areas [1,7,8,16,17] and only a few studies have investigated the patterns and correlates of methamphetamine use outside of urban areas in Australia [14,[18][19][20][21] or elsewhere [22][23][24]. Understanding the nature of the problem is critical to adequately plan health services, allocate resources, provide suitable interventions and improve treatment coverage.…”

Mortality in heroin users 3 years after naltrexone implant or methadone maintenance treatment

“…The MMT group, as the mainstream therapy, also acts as a control for historic changes in the study period, such as in the availability of heroin (Baker et al, 2004;Longo, Henry-Edwards, Humeniuk, Christine, & Ali, 2004). Also of interest were potential high-risk periods: Among people entering methadone treatment, the first 14 days are considered to be of elevated risk (Caplehorn & Drummer, 1999); for those receiving naltrexone, the end of treatment is likely to increase risk (Digiusto et al, 2004).…”

It's the thought that counts: Craving metacognitions and their role in abstinence from methamphetamine use

“…A detailed description of the methods for this study have been reported elsewhere (Baker et al, 2004(Baker et al, , 2005 and are briefly recounted here.…”