What is Stimulant Use Disorder?
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Stimulant Use Disorder can develop very quickly, in just a few weeks, especially with smoking and intravenous use. Drastic personality changes follow just as fast. Heavy stimulant users are hard to miss. To an observer, they appear restless, talkative, euphoric, grandiose, anxious, and may have bizarre behaviors or violent outbursts. Stimulant users tend to go on binges, using frequently for several days in a row while relinquishing food and sleep. These are followed by a few days of abstinence, characterized by increased sleep and appetite, and after, the cycle begins again.
The new edition of the DSM consolidates all stimulant use disorders (such as cocaine, methamphetamine, and prescription drugs) into one category because of their similar effects and diagnostic profiles. In the short term, stimulants increase heart rate, blood pressure, and body temperature. They can even cause chest pain similar to a heart attack. Stimulant use also leads to a short-term increased risk of heart attack, heart arrhythmia, and respiratory difficulties, even in otherwise healthy individuals. It can also cause placental abnormalities and miscarriage in pregnant women. Chronic stimulant users become psychotic and experience paranoid delusions and hallucinations. These disturbances can last for years even after drug use has stopped.
What to look for
Signs of methamphetamine use include scattered scabs (from picking in response to hallucinations of things under the skin) and poor dentition (“meth mouth”) from dry mouth and lack of oral hygiene. Long term methamphetamine use impairs attention and working memory. It blunts the sensation of pleasure so that chronic users derive joy from nothing but the drug.
Cocaine has it’s own set of hallmarks. Users get frequent nosebleeds and chronic runny nose from snorting and respiratory tract irritation from smoking. Long term use of cocaine increases the risk of stroke (as does methamphetamine) and seizures, and damages and weakens heart muscle. All stimulants lead to weight loss, and intravenous use can lead to infection and risk of HIV and viral hepatitis.