A new Turning Point educational video is available – ‘Testing new medications for methamphetamine use disorder (MAUD) in young people’.
The video is presented by Assoc. Prof. Gillinder Bedi and Dr Alexandre Guerin.
Methamphetamine use commonly starts in adolescence or early adulthood. New treatment approaches for young people are required.
This presentation provides an overview of two open-label studies assessing candidate pharmacotherapies for safety and tolerability in young people (15- 25-year-olds) with methamphetamine use disorder (MAUD).
Study 1: (Methamphetamine use in young people: sub-anaesthetic ketamine open-label trial; MASKOT, N = 20) tests the safety and tolerability of two sub-cutaneous doses of ketamine (initial dose 0.75 mg/kg) separated by at least 7 days.
Study 2 (Cannabidiol – a novel pharmacotherapy for lowering methamphetamine use; CALM, N = 12) tests the safety and tolerability of 8 weeks of maintenance on the non-intoxicating cannabinoid cannabidiol (800-1000 mg/day; oral).
Assoc. Prof. Bedi’s research focuses on early intervention and new treatments for substance use problems in young people and the neurobiological mechanisms underlying the development of substance use disorders.
She uses a range of research methods including clinical trials, human behavioural pharmacology, and neuroimaging (MRI).
Dr Guerin is currently project managing a suite of clinical trials investigating novel pharmacotherapies to treat methamphetamine use disorder in young people.