Methamphetamine-induced psychosis: Clinical features, treatment modalities and outcomes

South African Journal of Psychiatry

 
 
Field Value
 
Title Methamphetamine-induced psychosis: Clinical features, treatment modalities and outcomes
 
Creator Thomas, Eileen Lategan, Helena Verster, Chris Kidd, Martin Weich, Lize
 
Subject Public Health, addictions Methamphetamine; South Africa; Psychosis; Phenomenology
Description Objective: To investigate the clinical features, prescribing patterns and outcomes of psychiatric inpatients admitted with methamphetamine-induced psychosis.Method: A cross-sectional, descriptive pilot study was conducted between March 2014 and August 2014 at three South African Mental Health Care Act designated hospitals prior to admission to a psychiatric hospital. Patients with methamphetamine-related psychotic symptoms according to the DSM-5 criteria were eligible. Structured face-to-face interviews were conducted and the Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale was employed as a measure of current psychopathology.Results: Fifty-six participants were included. Positive psychotic symptoms (e.g. hallucinations) were more prominent than negative symptoms (e.g. affective blunting). Almost half the participants (43%) had previous episodes of methamphetamine-induced psychosis. Within this group, all had defaulted on the prescribed treatment prior to admission. Only 29% of the participants had received prior formal substance-use rehabilitation as treatment for their disorder. High rates of comorbid cannabis and alcohol use (51%) were recorded. Most of the participants required transfer to specialist psychiatric hospitals. The amounts of methamphetamine used were not a predictor of the persistence of psychosis; however, the pattern of use was.Conclusion: Clinical features correspond with other international findings. The currently employed model of sequential, non-integrated psychiatric and substance use treatment in this setting appears ineffective.
 
Publisher AOSIS
 
Contributor The authors hereby acknowledge Drs FP Joubert, M du Toit and B van Dyk for assistance with the recruitment of participants and collection of data.
Date 2016-09-29
 
Type info:eu-repo/semantics/article info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion — —
Format text/html application/epub+zip application/xml application/pdf
Identifier 10.4102/sajpsychiatry.v22i1.980
 
Source South African Journal of Psychiatry; Vol 22, No 1 (2016); 6 pages 2078-6786 1608-9685
 
Language eng
 
Relation
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https://sajp.org.za/index.php/sajp/article/view/980/709 https://sajp.org.za/index.php/sajp/article/view/980/710 https://sajp.org.za/index.php/sajp/article/view/980/711 https://sajp.org.za/index.php/sajp/article/view/980/704
 
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Rights Copyright (c) 2016 Eileen Thomas, Helena Lategan, Chris Verster, Martin Kidd, Lize Weich https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
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