Physical and mental health problems in amphetamine users from metropolitan Adelaide, Australia

Abstract

Phase I of this study was designed to inform the development of a range of responses to hazardous and harmful amphetamine use. Research techniques from Rapid Assessment Methodology (RAM) were utilized to collect data. A survey of current amphetamine users included the Short Form 36 (SF36) Health Status Questionnaire, for which South Australian population norms were published in 1995. This facilitated comparisons of the health of this sample of amphetamine users with that of the general population. The sample were found to have significantly poorer health than the general population. The self-reported prevalence of mental health problems in the sample was consistent with previous Australian research on amphetamine use. Approximately one-third of the sample reported that they had experienced symptoms of anxiety, depression, mood swings and aggressive outbursts prior to their use of amphetamines. Two-thirds of the sample reported symptoms of anxiety and depression since starting to use amphetamines, almost half reported mood swings and aggressive outbursts, and over a third reported panic attacks and paranoia. One of the most important findings was a strong association between mental and physical health problems and the severity of dependence on amphetamines. The implications of these results for interventions with amphetamine users are discussed.

Alcohol and drug use among patients presenting to an inner-city emergency department: A latent class analysis

“…Baker, et al, 1991; Bindman, et al, 1991; Grumbach, et al, 1993; McCaig & Burt, 2003; Pane, et al, 1991). Further, these findings are consistent with the literature from non-ED settings showing that drug users often have co-occurring mental health problems (Barry, et al, 2006; Grant, 1995; Johnson, Brems, & Burke, 2002; Kandel, Huang, & Davies, 2001; Vincent, Schoobridge, Ask, Allsop, & Ali, 1998) and poor physical health (Adrian & Barry, 2003; Chen, Scheier, & Kandel, 1996; Garrity, et al, 2007; Marzuk, et al, 1995; Vincent, et al, 1998). …”

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

“…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.…”

Young Cannabis Users in Residential Treatment: As Distressed as Other Clients

“…Although psychostimulants have been noted for their adverse impact on various mental health domains among regular users (Darke et al, 2008;Vincent et al, 1998), and although Hawke et al (2000) found more severe psychopathology among young psychostimulant than among nonpsychostimulant users in residential treatment, in this study the primarily cannabis-and psychostimulantdependent young people demonstrated similar mental health profiles. This is not surprising in relation to psychoticism, which has been consistently and causally 3 linked to cannabis use (Cohen, Solowij, & Carr, 2008;Hall, 2006;McLaren, Lemon, Robins, & Mattick, 2008;Moore et al, 2007).…”

“…This finding may be expected given that the effects of cannabis on these health areas have not been clearly established (McLaren & Mattick, 2007), whereas the adverse effects of psychostimulants and opioids on physical health have been demonstrated (Darke, Kaye, McKetin, & Duflou, 2008;Vincent, Shoobridge, Ask, Allspo, & Ali, 1998;Williamson, Darke, Ross, & Teesson, 2009). Although cannabis-dependent individuals had less impairment in physical health than opioid-or psychostimulantdependent individuals, their physical health was nevertheless impaired.…”