Meth Facts

Long-term methamphetamine abuse can cause psychotic symptoms such as paranoia, hallucinations, and delusions (such as the sensation of bugs crawling under the user’s skin) to occur. The psychotic symptoms can last for months or years after methamphetamine use has ceased. —From the National Institute on Drug Abuse, Research Report: Methamphetamine Abuse and Addiction, September 2006

Methamphetamine Addiction and Treatment

Meth can damage blood vessels in the brain leading to strokes (which can produce irreversible damage). —From the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, 2004

Methamphetamine (commonly called meth) is a highly addictive stimulant that affects the central nervous system. Meth damages the body and mind because it is often made from harmful ingredients such as battery acid, household cleaners, various fuels, and antifreeze. Meth increases blood pressure, body temperature, heart rate, and breathing rate, and has been known to cause stroke, cardiac arrhythmia, stomach cramps, and shaking.

The staff at Burning Tree is sensitive to the needs of the recovering meth addict and knows that recovery is a prolonged process. They realize that emotional and cognitive impairments affect the body long after meth use is discontinued. They give each patient the solutions and techniques needed to maintain sobriety by introducing methods and tools that refocus the individual’s attention on recovery.

Methamphetamine Facts

What is methamphetamine?

Methamphetamine is a highly addictive stimulant that affects the central nervous system. Although most of the methamphetamine used in this country comes from foreign or domestic superlabs, the drug is also easily made in small clandestine laboratories, with relatively inexpensive over-the-counter ingredients. These factors combine to make methamphetamine a drug with high potential for widespread abuse.

Methamphetamine is commonly known as “speed,” “meth,” and “chalk.” In its smoked form, it is often referred to as “ice,” “crystal,” “crank,” and “glass.” It is a white, odorless, bitter-tasting crystalline powder that easily dissolves in water or alcohol. The drug was developed early last century from its parent drug, amphetamine, and was used originally in nasal decongestants and bronchial inhalers. Like amphetamine, methamphetamine causes increased activity and talkativeness, decreased appetite, and a general sense of well-being. However, methamphetamine differs from amphetamine in that at comparable doses, much higher levels of methamphetamine get into the brain, making it a more potent stimulant drug. It also has longer lasting and more harmful effects on the central nervous system.

Methamphetamine is a Schedule II stimulant, which means it has a high potential for abuse and is available only through a prescription. It is indicated for the treatment of narcolepsy (a sleep disorder) and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder; but these medical uses are limited, and the doses are much lower than those typically abused.

What is the scope of methamphetamine abuse in the United States?

NIDA’s Community Epidemiology Work Group (CEWG), an early warning network of researchers that provides information about the nature and patterns of drug abuse in 21 major areas of the U.S., reported in January 2006 that methamphetamine continues to be a problem in the West, with indicators persisting at high levels in Honolulu, San Diego, Seattle, San Francisco, and Los Angeles; and that it continues to spread to other areas of the country, including both rural and urban sections of the South and Midwest. In fact, methamphetamine was reported to be the fastest growing problem in metropolitan Atlanta.

According to the 2005 National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH), an estimated 10.4 million people age 12 or older (4.3 percent of the population) have tried methamphetamine at some time in their lives. Approximately 1.3 million reported past-year methamphetamine use, and 512,000 reported current (past-month) use. Moreover, the 2005 Monitoring the Future (MTF) survey of student drug use and attitudes reported 4.5 percent of high school seniors had used methamphetamine within their lifetimes, while 8th-graders and 10th-graders reported lifetime use at 3.1 and 4.1 percent, respectively. However, neither of these surveys has documented an overall increase in the abuse of methamphetamine over the past few years. In fact, both surveys showed recent declines in methamphetamine abuse among the Nation’s youth.

In contrast, evidence from emergency departments and treatment programs attest to the growing impact of methamphetamine abuse in the country. The Drug Abuse Warning Network (DAWN), which collects information on drug-related episodes from hospital emergency departments (EDs) throughout the Nation, has reported a greater than 50 percent increase in the number of ED visits related to methamphetamine abuse between 1995 and 2002, reaching approximately 73,000 ED visits, or 4 percent of all drug-related visits in 2004.

Treatment admissions for methamphetamine abuse have also increased substantially. In 1992, there were approximately 21,000 treatment admissions in which methamphetamine/amphetamine was identified as the primary drug of abuse, representing more than 1 percent of all treatment admissions during the year. By 2004, the number of methamphetamine treatment admissions increased to greater than 150,000, representing 8 percent of all admissions.

Moreover, this increased involvement of methamphetamine in drug treatment admissions has also been spreading across the country. In 1992, only 5 states reported high rates of treatment admissions (i.e., >24 per 100,000 population) for primary methamphetamine/amphetamine problems; by 2002, this number increased to 21, more than a third of the states.

*Article is from the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), which is part of the National Institute on Health and a component of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.