Drugs Are The Answer? –
November 7, 2019 – Dr. Keith Heinzerling, an addiction medicine specialist at the Pacific Neuroscience Institute in Santa Monica, Calif., says he prescribes naltrexone off-label, in combination with other medications, for methamphetamine addiction if patients are interested in trying it. And he believes, when combined with physician oversight and counseling, it can be an effective treatment.
“I think there’s a great opportunity to try naltrexone,” Heinzerling says. “There’s actually a decent amount of evidence that it might help, and if I had a family member [addicted to meth], I would recommend they try it.”
Heinzerling points to preliminary studies on naltrexone that support the idea that it might help reduce people’s cravings for methamphetamine. Heinzerling believes naltrexone can have an anti-addiction effect for many drugs and potentially for other types of compulsive behaviors. But, he cautions, much is still unknown, and more research on drugs like naltrexone for methamphetamine is needed.
