Concerned about your own or
someone else’s drug use?

About the series

NCCRED are producing a series of VANs showcasing NCCRED supported research, developed for both consumers and healthcare professionals.

Sign up to our email list to get new video abstracts when they’re published.

Published 8 March 2024

In Australia, women have been shown to be as likely as men to use methamphetamine weekly. But women make up less than a third of people who access treatment for methamphetamine use disorder.

The paper, published in BMC Health Services Research, is based on interviews with 11 women recruited from an inner-city hospital in Sydney. Read the paper: https://nccred.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/s12913-023-09125-z.pdf

Published 23 October 2023

Wada Wanti is an evidence-based web app designed to help Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander People to stop or reduce their use of methamphetamine. Jason Ramp interviewed clients and lived experience workers at the Healing Circle in Port Lincoln, South Australia to explore how Wada Wanti would fit in to the service and the lives of clients.

Published on 26 June 2023

This project analysed 10,000 deidentified electronic medical records from NSW, seeking to describe what people who use methamphetamine have in common. This includes identifying how frequently they use, the level and types of other substance use, their quality of life and whether they’re having problems like being arrested or experiencing violence.

Read the full paper

Published on 24 April 2023

An NCCRED supported mini review finds that technologically assisted interventions for methamphetamine use were most useful for people not already linked with treatment; future research will also explore how technology can be best integrated with existing treatment.

Read the full paper

Published on 12 April 2023

This VAN presents the results of a training needs analysis conducted with staff from Australian Alcohol and Other Drug telephone helplines. These helplines take over 100,000 calls annually.

In regard to Methamphetamine and Emerging Drugs of Concern; the results found a need for:

• Practical community-informed population relevant information for culturally and linguistically diverse populations and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples;
• Training and resources with a particular focus on families and friends of people who use methamphetamine
• Readily accessible up-to-date information on new and emerging drugs and treatment of related disorders.

Read the full paper

Published on 6 February 2023

The OLAM study investigates the safety and feasibility of lisdexamphetamine (a stimulant medication) to assist people in methamphetamine withdrawal.

The results of our study showed Lisdexamphetamine to be a safe and feasible pharmacotherapy for people experiencing methamphetamine withdrawal.

The results are promising but more research (a randomized control trial) is required.

Read the full paper

Published on 11 July 2022

This VAN explores what we know about methamphetamine withdrawal, and how treating it might be approached.

Using the results of a systematic review and meta-analysis, we discuss what medications have been trialled to date, whether or not they worked, and the impact of these results in clinical practice.

Read the full paper