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Abstract
Methamphetamine use is associated with numerous harms and consequently represents a significant impact on Australia’s treatment and health service sectors. This article presents baseline findings from the first cohort study of regular methamphetamine users conducted in Melbourne, describing associations between participant characteristics and behaviours and methamphetamine dependence. A total of 255 Melbourne-based, regular methamphetamine users were recruited during 2010 and administered a structured questionnaire. Most were male and Australian-born with a median age of 30 years. Sixty percent of the participants were classified as methamphetamine dependent using the Severity of Dependence Scale. The socio-demographic characteristics of these participants were generally comparable to non-methamphetamine-dependent participants; however, methamphetamine dependence was independently associated with experience of high levels of psychological distress during the previous month, current use of prescribed mental health medication and primarily injecting methamphetamine over other routes of administration. Polysubstance use was universal; many participants also reported recent use of cannabis and heroin. Despite the fundamentally different recruitment criteria, the socio-demographic characteristics of the community-recruited baseline sample reflect those of methamphetamine-using samples recruited in other Australian jurisdictions since the mid-1990s. This study provides important up-to-date data on methamphetamine use in Melbourne and is an important basis for understanding any future changes to patterns of methamphetamine use in this region.
Acknowledgements
The authors thank the participants who took part in the study and the staff of community-based organisations who assisted with recruitment. The assistance of colleagues at the Burnet Institute and National Drug Research Institute who assisted with study design, participant recruitment and interviewing is also greatly appreciated, namely: David Moore, Nicola Thomson, Robyn Dwyer, Rebecca Jenkinson, Rebecca Winter, Maelenn Gouillou, Shelley Cogger, Daniel O’Keefe, Peter Higgs, Danielle Collins, Anita Feigin, Phuong Nguyen and Danielle Horyniak. The authors also gratefully acknowledge the contribution to this work of the Victorian Operational Infrastructure Support Program.
Declaration of interest
The study was funded by an NHMRC project grant (479208). PD is funded by an ARC Future Fellowship (FT100100321). The funding bodies played no role in the study design, data analyses or preparation of the manuscript for publication. The authors declare that they have no competing interests; the material has not been published elsewhere; the paper is not currently being considered for publication elsewhere; all authors have been personally and substantially involved in the work leading to the paper and will hold themselves jointly and individually responsible for its content; and relevant ethical safeguards have been met in relation to the confidentiality and consent of the participants involved in the research.