Ice alternatives 'needed to quash cravings'
By Tamara McLean
November 17, 2007 10:10am
MEDICATIONS that quash cravings for ice are desperately needed to fully address Australia's addiction to the dangerous stimulant, a conference has been told.
About 73,000 Australians are addicted to methamphetamines like ice or speed but unlike alcohol and other drugs, doctors and community health workers are unable to offer addicts a proven medical alternative or therapy to wean them off.
Dr Yvonne Bonomo, a specialist in addiction medicine at St Vincent's Hospital in Melbourne, has told the doctors' meeting GPCE Primary Care that these alternatives can not come soon enough.
The current best practice treatment for addicts is counselling techniques like cognitive behavioural therapy, but Dr Bonomo said limited availability, expense and impracticality mean only a "very small'' number are receiving this treatment.
"It would be easier to engage people in treatment if you had something to offer them that's tangible - a drug, a therapy where they have to be monitored, turn up to treatment, get a script, have their dose adjusted,'' Dr Bonomo said.
"That's what we need to make people feel like they're actually able to get off these drugs.'' Several trials are underway to develop and test different medications which could be used to substitute ice, as methadone does for heroin addicts, but it is still preliminary.
"The challenge with that of course is that when you're substituting a stimulant there is a fine line between giving them enough to satisfy the craving and triggering the devastating side-effects like psychosis,'' she said.
Another option is medication that "switches off'' the craving in the brain so users no longer battle the urge to seek out the drug. However, these trials, too, are only in the early stages.
"At the moment they're both in development but when they're here they'll make a huge difference,'' the specialist said.
"This is a nasty class of illicit drug that has devastating consequences on our young people. We need to be able to offer them different options so they can see a way out.''
Recent studies suggest almost one in 10 Australians have tried methamphetamines, and use is increasing.
A report released by the Australian National Council on Drugs this year showed there were 14,780 drug treatment episodes for methamphetamine or amphetamine use in 2004-2005.
