A 2004 report from the state of Colorado looked at treatment outcomes from methamphetamine abusers compared with abusers of alcohol and other drugs, and found that on several measures, methamphetamine abusers tended to do about as well as everyone else.
Nevertheless, all the experts interviewed at the meeting said they were convinced that this was an issue that needed to be addressed in treatment.
“Treatment really needs to be designed to accommodate these cognitive deficits we see in meth users,” Dr. Hillhouse said.
Dr. Vocci suggested that some form of pharmacotherapy might be helpful. Some candidate agents have been suggested, including modafinil, the wakefulness drug, which some studies have reported improves the very types of cognition apparently affected by methamphetamine abuse, he noted.
“I would say that the cognitive impairment [in methamphetamine abusers] is universal,” Dr. Dirkers said. “That's why it is such a bad drug. The effects are malignant.”