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Meth Addiction in Tennessee

Background

A. Effects of methamphetamine use include psychotic problems, higher risks of heart failure, bipolar conditions and depression, violent tendencies, chronic memory issues, and the transmission of communicable diseases such as HIV/AIDS (Radfar, & Rawson, 2014)

B. 1. In 2004, it was projected that 1.4 million Americans (0.6% with an age of 12 years or above) had used meth at least once in the previous 12 months.

2. About half of them had used the substance in the last one month

3. Tennessee residents have an abuse rate for meth of over 1% of the total populace which is higher than the national rate (Maglione, Chao, & Anglin, 2007)

C. Addiction leads to significant public health burden.

Loss of communal productivity as well as occasioning social-familial instability

D. Has lower introduction age than cocaine and other hard drugs.

Symptoms

A. Increased blood pressure

B. Higher body temperature

C. Heightened sex drive

D. Lower feeling of hunger

E. Slower rate of breathing (Radfar, & Rawson, 2014)

Withdrawal syndromes may include;

A. Increased appetite

B. Bipolar (lowering or heightening) changes in psychomotor activity

C. Sleep disturbance (Buxton & Dove, 2008; Radfar, & Rawson, 2014)

Diagnosis

A. Symptomatic

A. Episodic psychosis

B. Delusional persecutions

C. Auditory and visual hallucinations

B. Differential

A. Interviews involving collateral sources of the patient’s medical history

B. Urine tests

C. Structure evaluation of the patient through interviews (Glasner-Edwards, & Mooney, 2014)

Cure

1. Replacement pharmacotherapy- substitute treatment

2. Psychiatric interventions

3. Behavioral treatments (Barr, Panenka, MacEwan, Thornton, Lang, Honer, & Lecomte, 2006)

Prevention

1. Contingency management

2. Effective family-health management

3. General introduction of antagonists in the general populace (Buxton & Dove, 2008)

References

Barr, A. M., Panenka, W. J., MacEwan, G. W., Thornton, A. E., Lang, D. J., Honer, W. G., & Lecomte, T. (2006). The need for speed: an update on methamphetamine addiction. Journal of Psychiatry and Neuroscience, 31(5), 301–313.

Buxton, J. A., & Dove, N. A. (2008). The burden and management of crystal meth use. CMAJ : Canadian Medical Association Journal, 178(12), 1537–1539. http://doi.org/10.1503/cmaj.071234