A pilot programme in prescribing dexamphetamine for amphetamine users (part I)

Abstract

Amphetamine use is a large and growing problem in the UK. Although much of it is infrequent, oral, recreational use, there are a significant number of people using amphetamines habitually, heavily and intravenously. Because of the perception that traditional drug services are opiate user oriented and have little to offer amphetamine users, there is often a proportional under-representation of amphetamine users presenting to services.

Prescribing dexamphetamine in oral form can produce encouraging results in terms of reducing injecting and use of street drugs, and improved health and lifestyle. However, because of the difficulties in obtaining control groups who will stay in treatment without a prescription to evaluate the efficacy of prescribing dexamphetamine, it has yet to achieve the respectability of substitute opiate prescribing.

A successful pilot for prescribing dexamphetamine for 10 heavy users is described and the design problems associated with it are discussed.