Responding to stimulant use — developments in treatment

Objective: To better understand current developments in the treatment of stimulant use.

Background: Stimulant drugs are second only to cannabis as the most widely used class of illicit drug globally, accounting for 68 million past-year consumers.

In Europe, according to the latest data of the EMCDDA’s European Drug Report 2022, surveys in 25 EU countries between 2016 and 2021 suggest that 1.4 million young adults (15–34) used amphetamines during the last year (1.4 % of this age group). More than 8 000 clients entering specialised drug treatment in Europe in 2020 reported amphetamine as their primary drug. About 3 700 of them were first-time clients. In addition, there are signals that availability and use of methamphetamine appears to be increasing.

Until now, pharmacotherapy has not yielded convincing results for the treatment of problems related to the use of amphetamine and methamphetamine. However, there are promising results from agonist therapies (also known as substitution treatment) for stimulants and there are interesting new studies underway.

In this webinar, we will begin our conversation with updates on the scientific research, discussing the results of the latest systematic reviews and also highlighting ongoing European studies. We will then bridge the gap between research and practice, learning from the experience of treating methamphetamine-related problems with prescription stimulants as well as identifying key policy and practice questions.