Amphetamine Addiction: Signs, Effects, & Treatment

The diagnosis should be considered in any patient with tachycardia, hypertension, and psychosis. If possible, the history should focus on the route of administration, dosage (amount and the number of usages), and time frame. Clinicians should also ask about co-ingestions to help distinguish mixed presentations and symptoms, as most users frequently use sedatives (alcohol, opioids, benzodiazepines, cannabis). At all times, the protection of the patient and the medical staff need to be considered if agitation or psychosis is present. Amphetamines contain a methyl group to the alpha position on its carbon chain resulting in lipophilicity, increasing its volume of distribution, and CNS stimulation. Amphetamines block monoamine reuptake transport systems resulting in high synaptic concentrations.

Are amphetamines a controlled substance?

Although this mechanism is often discounted because amphetamine is a relatively weak inhibitor of MAO, in the situation where amphetamine is concentrated in presynaptic nerve terminals, shown in Figure 3, it is probable that some inhibition of this enzyme would occur. Inhibition of 3Hmonoamine uptake into rat brain synaptosomes by amphetamine’s enantiomers in vitro. Comparison 1 Any pharmacological treatment versus Placebo, Outcome 2 Average score in global state. One study was judged to be at low risk of bias and three studies were judged to be at unclear risk of bias. In conducting a meta‐analysis, a fixed effect model, an analysis that ignores the between‐study variation, can give a narrower confidence interval than a random effect model. It is generally agreed that the fixed effect model is valid as a test of significance of the overall null hypothesis (i.e. ‘no effect in all studies’).

What Are the Symptoms of Amphetamine Addiction?

• Increased HIV and hepatitis B and C transmission are possible related consequences of increased methamphetamine abuse, not only in individuals who inject the drug but also in non-injecting methamphetamine abusers.
• The titles and abstracts of the studies identified by the search strategy were evaluated by two reviewers (KS and LA) independently.
• The percentage of abstinence from amphetamines had a range from 40.8% 21 to 58.3% 20 among treated participants at six-month follow-up.
• This prohibited meta-analysis of the literature but allowed for a comprehensive report on the current status of the research.

The participants of the four included studies were mainly males (110 males, 15 females). In two studies (Jittiwutikan 1997, Srisurapanont 1999b), participants were inpatients at a drug dependence treatment center who met DSM‐IV criteria for amphetamine withdrawal. In the Srisurapanont 1999b study, participants had to meet the additional criteria of having an Amphetamine Withdrawal Questionnaire (AWQ) score of 10 or higher. The combined mean duration of amphetamine use histories and length of time since last use of amphetamine prior to admission for the two studies on amineptine was 23.6 months and 55.2 hours, respectively. Participants in the Kongsakon 2005 study were detainees from a probation facility who were diagnosed with amphetamine dependence by DSM‐IV criteria.

How we reviewed this article:

If you experience strong drug cravings, you may find it easier to go through amphetamine withdrawal in a hospital setting. Hospitalization may also help if you have negative mood changes, including aggression and suicidal behavior. They treat attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and narcolepsy, a sleep disorder. They’re also sometimes used by medical professionals to treat other disorders. Pharmacists can answer questions about medication and help people understand medication instructions. Because they are the primary people dispensing medications, they can watch for falsified prescriptions or drugs that people refill too often.

How is amphetamine dependence diagnosed?

Dosing was tapered from 300 mg po OD for the first week, to 200 mg po OD in Week 2 and 100 mg po OD in Week 3. While measures of craving reduced significantly more in the treatment arm than placebo, there was no difference in end-of-treatment abstinence between groups. Additionally, levels of temptation and depression, but not anxiety, withdrawal severity, or treatment effectiveness, improved favouring treatment. Another study enrolled 110 MA-dependent participants in the USA with active study drug for 10 weeks followed by 4 weeks of blinded placebo treatment to encourage follow-up 48. Furthermore, the time of lisdexamfetamine’s peak pharmacological effect was substantially delayed compared with IR d-amphetamine, at 3.0 h versus 1.5–2.0 h. When lisdexamfetamine was given at an increased dose of 150 mg, it significantly increased the DQRS ‘Drug liking’ score to an equivalent extent to IR d-amphetamine (40 mg oral).

A short history of amphetamine

However, it is possible that the actions of amphetamine to increase serotonergic drive may have a beneficial effect on anxiety or depression that is often comorbid with ADHD. Thus, enhanced catecholaminergic signalling is the primary mediator of amphetamine’s efficacy in ADHD and narcolepsy. On the negative side, the same pharmacology is also responsible for amphetamine’s major side effects and also its liability for recreational abuse. Therefore, optimising therapeutic efficacy whilst simultaneously maintaining side effects at an acceptable level is a difficult balance requiring careful dose titration in the patient.

• For this update of the review, one author (UK) inspected the search hits by reading titles and abstracts.
• However, some patients may require antihypertensive treatment to combat hypertensive urgency or emergency.
• Future research should address small sample sizes and low participant retention and treatment adherence rates, leading to underpowered studies lacking meaningful results.
• If any outcome was assessed more than once in a particular term, only the results of the longest duration in that term were considered.

• Due to the limited number of studies, conducting a meta-analysis was not feasible.
• You can contact one of our admissions navigators 24/7 free of charge at to check your health insurance coverage, get help finding treatment, and get started on the road to amphetamine addiction recovery.
• The diagnosis should be considered in any patient with tachycardia, hypertension, and psychosis.
• All of the stimulants have biological half-lives that require at least twice-daily dosing to deliver efficacy over 12–14 h.

Mirtazapine was no more effective than placebo in terms of discontinuation rate, improvements on global state, and reduction in withdrawal symptoms based on the results of one study (Cruickshank 2008). To assess the effectiveness of pharmacological alone or in combination with psychosocial treatment for amphetamine withdrawals on discontinuation rates, global state, withdrawal symptoms, craving, and other outcomes. There are no specific medications that counteract the effects of amphetamines or that prolong abstinence from and reduce the abuse of amphetamines.

Does relapse to drug use mean treatment has failed?

Optimal psychosocial interventions accompanying medication must also be considered. Further and substantial investment to determine effective pharmacotherapies is required. Future Amphetamine Addiction research should address small sample sizes and low participant retention and treatment adherence rates, leading to underpowered studies lacking meaningful results. Under-powered results can be avoided by planning recruitment for high attrition rates, collaborating on multi-centre research, potentially through clinical research networks, and a greater role for consumer and clinician engagement in the planning and establishment of trials. Medication adherence also needs to be better examined and monitored in trials, particularly when using medications with abuse liability (e.g. psychoactive medications such as stimulants). Finally, because of the similarities in chemical structure and behavioural, psychological and physical effects of AMPH and MA 84, we have included studies of AMPH and MA, and studies that did not distinguish between AMPH and MA.

treatment resistant

Amphetamines, i.e. racemic amphetamine, d-amphetamine and methamphetamine, were widely used to promote wakefulness in World War II, which in turn led to a large increase in production that resulted in large surpluses of these drugs after the war. Much of these stocks got into the ‘black market’, and in the 1950s d-amphetamine abuse became recognised. In a classic study of that period, Connell from the Institute of Psychiatry reported a group of heavy d-amphetamine users who had become paranoid (Connell, 1966). This flagged up the potential psychiatric dangers of this drug and may have encouraged prescribers away from d-amphetamine and on to methylphenidate. Another factor was the use of d-amphetamine as an antidepressant in the 1950s before the discovery of the tricyclic monoamine reuptake inhibitors. There were cases of misuse by patients, and also a significant degree of diversion of the prescribed drug into youth misuse and/or abuse that may also have contributed to wariness by prescribers regarding its clinical use.