Webinar Recording: Therapeutic interventions for methamphetamine dependence

The National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre (NDARC) recently held a webinar titled, “Therapeutic interventions for methamphetamine dependence”. With crystal methamphetamine (‘ice’) being a significant and growing public health concern in Australia, and with limited effective treatment options including broadly effective medications for stimulants, this webinar looks at some promising pharmacotherapies and examines the effectiveness of various behavioural therapies in treating methamphetamine dependence.

Mirtazapine, an approved antidepressant medication, has recently been identified in early clinical trials as the first potentially effective medication treatment option and NDARC is leading on further clinical trials to begin in 2022. Evidence suggests contingency planning has the greatest effects when compared to other behavioural therapies like cognitive behavioural therapy and motivational interviewing for treating methamphetamine dependence, in part because of the chronic relapse nature of the stimulant dependence. A large part of the webinar is devoted to a panel discussion on the role of pharmacotherapies as a foundation along with behavioural therapies.   

Watch  “Therapeutic interventions for methamphetamine dependence” (58 minutes)