Teen Girls May Have a Harder Time Quitting Methamphetamine, Study Suggests
Teenage girls may have a more difficult time than boys in quitting methamphetamine, a new study suggests.
The study by researchers at UCLA found girls are more likely to
continue using methamphetamine during treatment. They say the findings
indicate the need for new treatment approaches for girls addicted to
meth, HealthCanal reports.
The study included nine boys and 10 girls, whose average age was 17
½. All were addicted to meth and were receiving counseling. They were
treated with either bupropion (an antidepressant and smoking cessation
drug) or a placebo. Teens given bupropion provided significantly fewer
meth-free urine samples compared with teens given a placebo, suggesting
the drug is not an effective treatment for meth addiction. Boys in both
groups provided more than twice as many meth-free urine samples as
girls.
“The greater severity of methamphetamine problems in adolescent girls
compared to boys, combined with results of studies in adults that also
found women to be more susceptible to methamphetamine than men, suggests
that the gender differences in methamphetamine addiction observed in
adults may actually begin in adolescence,” study author Dr. Keith
Heinzerling said in a news release.
The findings appear in the Journal of Adolescent Health.
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