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'Ice' users likely to suffer psychosis

'Ice' users likely to suffer psychosis on drug, study finds

DateMalcolm Knox
 
 USERS of methamphetamine, or ''ice'', are five times likelier to suffer psychotic symptoms while taking the drug, according to a groundbreaking new Australian study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association Psychiatry (JAMA Psychiatry).
The study's lead author, Dr Rebecca McKetin, said that ''there have always been questions about causality from those who say methamphetamine users aren't 'turned mad' by the drug but have a pre-existing psychotic condition. What's unique about this study is that it excludes those users and still finds such a strong link between use and psychotic symptoms in a large cohort over a period of years''.

Dr McKetin, formerly of the National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre in Sydney and now at the Australian National University, said she was surprised by the strength of the results but that they will ''come as no surprise to police officers in Kings Cross who report anecdotally about users who will 'go mad' one day and not the next''.
The authors studied 278 methamphetamine users from Sydney and Brisbane over a four-year period between 2006 and 2010. A correlation between methamphetamine use and psychosis had already been found by many studies, but it was uncertain how many of those ice-users had an existing psychotic condition, characterised by hallucinations and delusions of being persecuted. What made the present study original and significant was that it followed the users over an extended period, and it excluded anyone with existing psychotic tendencies.
Comment:

I guess we all knew this to be the case, however good to be confirmed by substantial research!
My question is: why don't people test for methamphetamine more often, many still religiously test for marijuana but not methamphetamine!! among young people I would say it is fast becoming the drug of choice!
MediNat

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