Good News: Abstinence from Meth can Produce Recovery in Brain Functions
Recently, a study was conducted that indicates that it takes at least one year for brain functions to improve in meth users, but it is possible. These findings bring hope to recovering meth abusers and their families and help them understand that it can take a while for the user’s brain to regain impulse control.
The study was conducted by Ruth Salo, a UC Davis assistant professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences and lead author of the study. She indicates that, “Recovery from meth abuse does not happen overnight. It may take a year—or even longer—for cognitive processes such as impulse control and attentional focus to improve. Treatment programs need to consider this when monitoring recovering addicts’ progress during their early periods of abstinence.”
These findings indicate that recovering meth users and their families can find hope in the fact that the brain can recover but individuals may also struggle with the fact that recovery does take some time. Salo indicates further that meth addiction is difficult to treat because there are prolonged, intense cravings associated with meth. She has worked with hundreds of meth addicts and specializes in the behavioral, neuropsychiatric, and cognitive outcomes of meth addiction. She knows that people in recovery (whether inpatient or outpatient) need confidence that they can succeed in order to continue their fight against their meth addiction.
In the report, Salo indicates that “All of them (recovering meth addicts) want to know if there is hope.” She says, “We used to think most, if not all, effects of meth addiction were permanent. This study adds to the growing evidence that this assumption is not true. I can confidently tell patients that the longer they stay in a structured rehabilitation program (inpatient or outpatient) and remain drug free, the more likely it is that they will recover some important brain functions.”
Salo also performed studies in relation to meth recovery in 2005 and in combining the results of the recent study with the past study she finds more confidence and hope that meth users can regain their brain functions. This good news is critical since meth use is becoming a worldwide pandemic. In understanding the long term consequences of continuing meth use and the long term consequences of abstinence from meth use, Salo hopes to continue to inspire the latter and give confidence to those who are fighting back against this addiction.