Stimulant psychosis

psychotic disorder that appears in some people who abuse stimulant drugs

Stimulant psychosis is a mental disortder where people get symptoms similar to that of psychosis (for example hallucinations, delusions, disorganized thinking, or being disorganized). Usually, it occurs after people take too many stimulants, over a longer time (usually days). One study found that it can also occur with regular prescribed drugs, in normal doses, in about 0.1% of the people (1 in 1000) who start amphetamine or methylphenidate therapy.[1][2][3]

Methamphetamine psychosis, or long-term effects of stimulant use in the brain (at the molecular level), depend upon genetics and may persist for some time.[4]

Treatment usually consists in assisting the patient in the acute phase, and to look that people drnk enough, have a normal blood pressure, and body temperature. Typical and atypical antipsychotics are sometimes used to help treatment.

References

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  1. "Adderall XR Prescribing Information" (PDF). FDA.gov. US Food and Drug Administration. December 2013. Retrieved 30 December 2013. Treatment-emergent psychotic or manic symptoms, e.g. hallucinations, delusional thinking, or mania in children and adolescents without prior history of psychotic illness or mania can be caused by stimulants at usual doses. ... In a pooled analysis of multiple short-term, placebo controlled studies, such symptoms occurred in about 0.1% (4 patients with events out of 3482 exposed to methylphenidate or amphetamine for several weeks at usual doses) of stimulant-treated patients compared to 0 in placebo-treated patients.
  2. Shoptaw, Steven J; Kao, Uyen; Ling, Walter (21 January 2009). "Treatment for amphetamine psychosis". Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews. 2009 (1): CD003026. doi:10.1002/14651858.CD003026.pub3. PMC 7004251. PMID 19160215.
  3. Mosholder AD, Gelperin K, Hammad TA, Phelan K, Johann-Liang R (February 2009). "Hallucinations and other psychotic symptoms associated with the use of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder drugs in children". Pediatrics. 123 (2): 611–616. doi:10.1542/peds.2008-0185. PMID 19171629.
  4. Greening, David W.; Notaras, Michael; Chen, Maoshan; Xu, Rong; Smith, Joel D.; Cheng, Lesley; Simpson, Richard J.; Hill, Andrew F.; van den Buuse, Maarten (10 December 2019). "Chronic methamphetamine interacts with BDNF Val66Met to remodel psychosis pathways in the mesocorticolimbic proteome". Molecular Psychiatry. 26 (8): 4431–4447. doi:10.1038/s41380-019-0617-8. PMID 31822818.