Stimulant Withdrawal Symptomatology and Treatment

Risk factors for severe withdrawal from stimulants include use of cocaine amphetamines (dexedrine) or methamphetamines, smoking (as crack), snorting (as cocaine chloride) or injecting it (all).

Stimulant withdrawal syndrome is characterized by


Drug craving is prolonged and intense. Paranoia and acute psychosis may occur. Most often, no treatment other than support is needed for the initial phase of stimulant withdrawal.

The treatment for stimulant addiction does not differ from the rest of addictions. It should aim to achieve abstinence.

However medication can be prescribed to control acute intense abstinence symptoms and obtain clinical stability.
Then psychosocial abstinence aimed interventions can start.

Pharmacotherapy is determined by the specific symptoms. Olanzapine and Risperidone are the drugs of choice for treating a patient with symptoms of paranoid psychosis.

Antidepressants such as desipramine (Norpramin) or fluoxetine (Prozac) may be useful in treating depressive symptoms; this therapy should be continued for three to six months, but because of the risk that the drug may be used in a suicide attempt, no more than one week's supply should be given at a time. Panic attacks may be treated with an antidepressant or a benzodiazepine.

Drugs being investigated for the treatment of generalized withdrawal symptoms include adrenergic agonists and calcium channel blockers.

New pharmacological approaches with noradrenergic and dopaminergic enhacers such as bupropion, mirtazapine and other medications producing simmilar neurobiological actions are usually prescribed by experienced clinicians only.