There has been an "alarming" increase in mental health hospital admissions involving methamphetamine use, new research showed.
Investigators found that between 2008 and 2020, such admissions increased by more than 10-fold.
"Overall, our results show an alarming increase in mental health disorder–related hospitalizations with concurrent methamphetamine use from 2008 to 2020," the investigators led by Diensn Xing, Department of Medicine, Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center at Shreveport, Louisiana, wrote.
"These results are especially concerning because these hospitalizations outpace hospitalizations for methamphetamine use alone or mental health disorders alone," they added.
The study was published online on June 26 in Nature Mental Health.
Action Needed
Mental illness and methamphetamine use are both growing health problems. The investigators pointed out that methamphetamine use can cause serious harm to an individual's mental, emotional, and social well-being and can significantly alter the brain.
They added that long-term methamphetamine users can exhibit "extreme anxiety, confusion, troubled sleep, mood changes, and aggressive behavior." In addition, use of the drug can cause psychotic side effects such as paranoia, hallucinations, delusions, and suicidality.
The investigators noted that to date, no studies have examined the combined effects of both diseases or characterized national trends over more than 10 years.
The researchers analyzed US mental health–related trends in methamphetamine users from 2008 to 2020. In particular, they wanted to characterize which demographic and geographic groups might be affected by both of these diseases because people with mental illness and co-occurring methamphetamine use are an "intersectional group" that is "doubly vulnerable to suicide and overdose death due to the synergistic effects of methamphetamine and mental health disorders."
Investigators evaluated US trends in mental health disorder–related hospital admissions (MHD-HAs) and compared them with mental health admissions that involved concurrent methamphetamine use (MHD-HA-MUs) between 2008 and 2020.
Using data from the largest US inpatient care database, which encompasses more than 7 million hospital stays annually, they examined close to 4 million weighted hospital admissions and found more than a 10-fold increase in MHD-HA-MUs, compared with a 1.4-fold increase in MHD-HAs.
MHD-HA-MUs increased significantly among men (13-fold), non-Hispanic Black patients (39-fold), and those aged 41-64 years (16-fold). In the southern United States, MHD-HA-MUs increased 24-fold, larger than in any other region in the United States.
"Overall, the data suggest that there are synergistic effects with methamphetamine use and mental health disorder, highlighting this patient group's unique needs, requiring distinct action," the researchers wrote.
They proposed several interventions, including public education about substance use disorders, mental illness, and the effects of stigma. They also suggested decreasing criminal penalties for those with substance use disorders and improving healthcare delivery for this patient population.
This work was supported by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and an award from the National Institute of General Medical Sciences of the NIH. Xing and coauthors declared no relevant financial relationships.
Note: This article originally appeared on Medscape.
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