Thursday, December 21, 2006

Study: Meth not harder to treat than other 'drugs'

The belief that addiction to methamphetamine is harder to treat took a blow from a study of treatment outcomes among more than 12,000 patients in Washington state. All 'hard' drug users (meth, cocaine, opiates) had, on the average, less successful treatment outcomes than users of alcohol and/or marijuana, but there were no statistically significant differences in successful recoveries between methamphetamine users and users of the other 'hard' drugs. Conclude the authors: patients addicted to meth can respond to treatment as positively as those addicted to cocaine and other hard drugs. Thanks, Jason Schwartz, for this item. Original article.

For an anecdotal confirmation of this message, see this story out of Tulsa, OK.

No comments: