METH WITHDRAWAL, DEPRESSION LINKED

Methamphetamine abusers who give up the drug cold turkey suffer
profound brain disorders that quickly induce depression and anxiety,
according to a first-of-its-kind study just published by a California
research team.

Researchers said they hoped their findings will help doctors and
clinicians tailor meth treatment programs to reduce the high rate of
relapse.

The study, conducted by the UCLA Neuropsychiatric Institute and partly
funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse, included the use of
machines to scan meth abusers' brains for abnormalities. The research
is published in this month's edition of the medical journal Archives
of General Psychiatry.

The lead researcher, Dr. Edythe London, said her study shows that
rehabilitation programs will have to pay special attention to treating
depression and anxiety in the early stages of treatment, particularly
in the first week. Otherwise, she said, the mood disorders could
contribute to meth users abusing the drug again.

She said her study of a group of volunteer meth abusers showed that
the parts of the abusers' brains that regulated emotion, motivation
and behavior did not work properly.

"Those areas that exert some control are turned off," she
said.

The result often was depression and anxiety, as well as the powerful
desire to use more meth, London said. The brain's capacity to stop
itself from doing something wrong - for example, using more drugs
- - was out of whack even though the abusers had stopped using meth.
The study's volunteers, confined to a hospital ward, had no meth
during the research.

London said she did not study whether these brain regulators
functioned abnormally when meth abusers used the drug, but she
suspected they did.

Most meth treatment programs have focused on treating "drug cravings"
of abusers, London said, but not depression or anxiety. She said
intense inpatient treatment - more costly than outpatient programs
- - seems to be an important step toward reducing relapses.

Although meth has been around for decades, its use has increased
dramatically across the country in recent years.

One reason for the rise in use has been a new, cheap way to make the
drug, using common items found at a local pharmacy or farm supply
store. Meth also provides a longer high than cocaine.

Spreading across the nation from the West Coast, this current wave of
meth use has just started to hit Georgia, according to law
enforcement. In the federal fiscal year 1999, local police reported 29
lab seizures to the Georgia Bureau of Investigation. In 2002, they
reported 395.