In prior work, it’s been noted how psychosis can follow methamphetamine use and last into abstinence. Varying levels of methamphetamine use can induce psychosis, depending in part on an individual’s background, and it can develop quickly or after 20 years of use. This psychosis can be quite similar to Schizophrenia - in some cases, violent behaviors have been connected to methamphetamine psychosis as well. A study of Japanese prisoners found that a subgroup of methamphetamine users experienced chronic psychosis. Lingering cognitive problems may cause other health complications, difficulty thinking or concentrating at work, and increasingly risky behavior, in addition to higher relapse rates. Furthermore, later-in-life stress can also revive psychotic symptoms. More research on methamphetamine and cognitive problems can help treatment providers understand these hidden tripwires for patients.
Some of the strategies currently used to treat traumatic brain injuries may be helpful, as may use of exercise, dance, and transcranial magnetic stimulation. Post drug abstinence psychoses may not be as reversible by medications used for naturally-occurring psychoses.
With methamphetamine this is even more important as medication assisted therapies do not exist. Time of abstinence, rehabilitation with healthy thinking, eating, sleeping, and diet are easier to prescribe or advise than find. Time of abstinence is of the essence as it appears that methamphetamine induces a drug use disorder with binges, relapses and cravings but also with loss of brain function and evidence of something that looks like a traumatic brain injury. Treating it like a neurological injury in addition to traditional addiction treatment, may be an idea worth looking at too.
