REPORT: METH USE CAUSES BRAIN DAMAGE

More Harm Done When User Is HIV Positive, Researchers Say

OCALA - Methamphetamine abuse continues to spread, despite new laws and
public education campaigns aimed at stamping it out. Now, medical
researchers are warning that meth is not only addictive, it literally
causes brain damage - all the more so when mixed with an HIV infection.

Both methamphetamine abuse and HIV infection distort different parts of the
brain, diminishing thought processes such as memory, problem- solving and
attention span, researchers at the HIV Neurobehavioral Research Center of
the University of California-San Diego report in this month's American
Journal of Psychiatry.

Dr. Jay Rubin, a neurologist in Ocala, said the findings agree with what
doctors already know about drugs and other stresses on the brain.

"Things like cocaine abuse can cause strokes," Rubin said. "There may be
some certain areas of the brain that are probably more susceptible to
damage. It's known, for instance, that suffocation or near- suffocation
causes damage in the parts of the brain like the hippocampus."

Ocala Police Maj. Guy K. Howie, who commands Marion County's multi- agency
drug enforcement team, said the findings likewise bear out with his own
observations of the growing numbers of local meth abusers.

"It doesn't surprise me at all," he said. "When you talk to somebody that's
on meth, you know. You watch the way they talk, the way they twitch. And
I've known some to be up for two to three days at a time. All of the toxic
chemicals used to make it has got to do something to both the body and the
brain."

The researchers in San Diego analyzed brain scans of 103 adults divided
into four groups: meth abusers, HIV-positive, HIV-positive meth abusers and
a control group with neither problem. They also tested each group on their
attention span and memory, the speed at which they mentally process
information, their ability to learn, verbal skills, motor skills and other
brain functions.

Methamphetamine abuse, they found, is related to swelling of the parietal
cortex, which helps people understand and pay attention to their
surroundings, as well as the basal ganglia, which is linked to motor skills
and motivation.

HIV, on the other hand, appears to shrink three parts of the brain: the
cerebral cortex, which plays a role in higher thinking, reasoning and
memory; the hippocampus, involved in learning and memory; and the basal
ganglia.

Both meth abuse and HIV appear to damage the brain separately, and cause
the most damage when paired together.

"In HIV-infected people, the . . . impairments are associated with
decreased employment and vocational abilities, difficulties with medication
management, impaired driving performance and problems with general
activities of daily living, such as managing money," Terry Jernigan, leader
of the research team, explained in a released statement.

While the impact of meth is less understood, "abusers of the drug have
impaired decision-making abilities," he said. "These could potentially
affect treatment and relapse prevention efforts, as well as things like
money management and driving performance."

The findings are especially significant given the risky sexual behavior and
contaminated needles that tend to link meth abuse with HIV infection,
according to Nora D. Volkow, director of the National Institute on Drug
Abuse (NIDA).

They are also significant given the rate at which meth use is gaining. A
recent survey by the National Association of Counties revealed that the
white crystalline drug poses a bigger problem for law enforcement agencies
across 45 states than cocaine, heroine or marijuana.

In Marion County, Howie said, police have identified 21 meth labs compared
to three at this time in 2004. They have also confiscated 1,584 grams of
the drug, compared to 475 grams at this time last year. The 12 cases of
meth possession in 2005 - not including the labs - represents an increase
as well.

"It's starting to get popular among teenagers, but it's more popular with
the 20- to 30-year-old crowd," Howie said. "There are a lot of people in
their 40s using it, too."

Relatively cheap, highly addictive and too-often mistaken as harmless, meth
cuts across most economic classes but has been more popular with whites
than blacks, Howie said. Abusers of the white, crystalline drug usually
develop pock marks on the skin, and scabs that result from scratching.

Lately, meth trafficking has been up locally while production has dropped
slightly - but only slightly, Howie said. "That's because we put several of
the people cooking it in jail."

Beating the epidemic is going to require continued, aggressive education
about the drug's effects and addictiveness, he said - otherwise, "This is
going to just take over like crack did in the 1980s."