Two-Drug Treatment Could Curb Meth Addiction [Video]

Key Takeaways

An experimental treatment for methamphetamine use disorder looks promisingMore users who received the two-medication therapy tested negative for methamphetamine after 12 weeksResearchers don’t know if their success would endure

MONDAY, June 10, 2024 (HealthDay News) — Though overdose deaths continue to surge, there is no approved medication to treat methamphetamine use disorder.

Now, an experimental two-drug therapy has yielded promising results, UCLA researchers report.

“These findings have important implications for pharmacological treatment for methamphetamine use disorder,” said researcher Dr. Michael Li, an assistant professor-in-residence of family medicine at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, adding that methamphetamine-involved overdoses have surged.

His team published its findings June 10 in the journal Addiction.

In urine tests for methamphetamine, drug-free results rose 27% among participants who received a combination of injectable naltrexone plus extended-release oral buproprion. Negative tests rose only 11%, meanwhile, in a control group.

Methamphetamine abuse is a growing problem around …