Aug
13
Methamphetamine addiction is very difficult to treat and unfortunately not everyone receives treatment before their dependency becomes chronic. It's not uncommon for people to return to meth use later on even if they have received residential or outpatient treatment for their addiction. Some people try to stop on their own or enter a detox facility and think that's all they need to overcome their meth addiction only to relapse eventually.
We know that anyone addicted to meth needs to receive treatment and detox is necessary before treatment for anyone that's been addicted to the drug for a long period of time. So why do so many people start using meth again even if they received treatment?
A study in Australia was done that showed many of the meth users that received treatment from a residential rehab program were able to quit their drug use at first but most of them had gone back to using after 3 years according to MedlinePlus.
"The problem with with many treatment programs is that they end too soon" according to Richard Rawson from the University of California, Los Angeles Integrated Substance Abuse Programs. There also aren't enough addiction programs that tailor treatment to meth users so many people receive treatment from programs that are designed for other substance abuse like alcohol or heroin according to Rebecca McKetin who is the lead author of the study. After 3 months they did interviews with people that were in the study who only went through detox and it showed they were just as likely to still be using meth as individuals in the no treatment group.