Adults with undiagnosed attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) are self-medicating by using methamphetamine, according to Perth doctors examining the link.
Since opening in November 2022, Fiona Stanley Hospital’s Addiction Prevention Treatment Service has seen 32 methamphetamine-addicted patients seeking help.
Eight have dropped out of treatment and, of the remaining 24, aged between 30 and 40, 17 have been newly diagnosed with ADHD.
Thirteen of those have been able to break their methamphetamine addiction after being prescribed atomoxetine, a non-stimulant.
Atomoxetine is less problematic for methamphetamine addicted patients than more common ADHD medications like Dexamphetamine and Ritalin.
Perth roof carpenter Cameron Dashwood suspected he had ADHD long before he was diagnosed late last year.
The 49-year-old used methamphetamine every day for about 20 years before developing cardiomyopathy, a disease that reduced his heart function to just 30 per cent.
“Once a day I’d get it in the mornings, and before I’d go to work I’d have my breakfast, and then I’d have an injection...just like a cup of coffee,” he told Nine News Perth.
“I’d wake up the next morning on the way to work, get it and have it again.”
Dashwood said his $100 per day ice habit helped him feel in control.
“I knew I had [ADHD] before I was tested,” he said.
“Turns out I ticked just about every box.”
Senior addiction psychiatrist Dr Kavita Seth says an adult ADHD diagnosis can change lives.
“People with ADHD do commonly use methamphetamine as their first drug of choice in self-medicating for their ADHD,” Seth told Nine News Perth.
“They feel like they need to use methamphetamine to complete projects and be more efficient.”
Seth also dubbed Perth the meth capital of Australia, which topped a list of 25 countries for meth usage uncovered in the Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission’s 2022 wastewater monitoring survey.
WA led the nation for the highest average capital city consumption of the drug, with both Perth and the state’s regional areas seeing an increase in average meth use.
Growing up, Dashwood struggled with reading and writing and lacked focus, telltale signs of ADHD.
His mother, Maxine Dashwood, said he used methamphetamine to feel better.
“With the new medication he’s on, that control is just an automatic thing, he feels like most people feel every day, and he hasn’t felt like that for forever,” she said.
“We were terrified. We constantly waited for the knock on the door to say that he’d been killed in a car accident or found dead.
“We no longer lay in bed at night going ‘Where’s Cam, is he ok?’. We now know exactly where he is and how he is.”
Dashwood thanked doctors who treated him in the emergency department, on the cardiac ward and in the treatment service at Fiona Stanley Hospital.
“Doctors here have definitely saved my life,” he said.
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