The mesocorticolimbic dopaminergic system plays an important role in the reinforcing effects of drugs of abuse, and the activity-dependent synaptic plasticity of the system is involved in drug dependence. A DNA microarray screening revealed that the expression levels of tissue plasminogen activator (tPA) mRNA in the nucleus accumbens of morphine- or methamphetamine-dependent rats were significa...

Cocaine dependence is an enduring problem and years of research and drug development has yet to produce an efficacious pharmacotherapy. Recent clinical research suggests that chronic treatment with amphetamine-like medications produces tolerance to cocaine's reinforcing effects and may offer a viable pharmacotherapy. Three methamphetamine-dependent participants that had been in our clinical lab...

Previously, we found fluoxetine reduces methamphetamine preference in mice. However, effects of fluoxetine on developed methamphetamine preference and on methamphetamine induced gene expression changes have been largely unknown. The present study investigates effects of post-treatment with fluoxetine on methamphetamine dependence and on gene expressions after long-term withdrawal in mice. First...

Methamphetamine is a drug of abuse that can cause neurotoxic damage in humans and animals. Modafinil, a wake-promoting compound approved for the treatment of sleeping disorders, is being prescribed off label for the treatment of methamphetamine dependence. The aim of the present study was to investigate if modafinil could counteract methamphetamine-induced neuroinflammatory processes, which occ...

AIMS: This study lays the foundation for a clinical prediction model based on methamphetamine craving intensity and its ability to predict the presence or absence of within-treatment methamphetamine use. DESIGN: We used a random effects logistic approach for estimating repeated-measures, generalized linear mixed models (GLMM) using craving as the sole predictor of methamphetamine. A multivaria...

BACKGROUND We sought to test the effectiveness of methadone and buprenorphine in the treatment of methamphetamine withdrawal craving over a 17-day treatment period. METHODS Patients were randomized into one of two groups. The study sample comprised 40 male subjects dependent on methamphetamine who met criteria of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition, for me...

conclusions depression and anxiety are prevalent in methamphetamine users. short-term abstinence improves depression and quality of life but does not improve anxiety in methamphetamine abusers. during follow up of these patients, addressing depression and anxiety is important to achieve better results. results the mean depression score after abstinence decreased significantly (p < 0.001). both ...