Does baclofen work for meth?

[Dosage0]

This is more of a question for anyone suffering from methamphetamine problems:

I have, on more than one occasion, tried to get someone addicted to meth to try and contact a Dr for meth addiction. However, I have found that meth addicts are very difficult to get to adhere to a schedule. Does baclofen work on meth users? My thought process is that it might help. Anyone with first hand knowledge, does it work? I know it works ,from posts, that it seems to help with crack and heroin addiction. Does it have further reaching potential?

Please weigh in positive or negative, as I would he interested in knowing on a personal level. Please weigh in.

Dose

[Bminor]

Does baclofen work for meth?

I have no experience with meth but I remember Dr. Levin saying that Baclofen worked for meth and other stimulants... I think that's what he said anyway. Could this person possibly call him and talk to him about it? It sure wouldn't hurt anything to try.

[Greg]

Does baclofen work for meth?

I was using pseudoephedrine as a mild over-the-counter stimulant to self-medicate my depression, and became concerned that I was starting to get an obsessive need to take it every day. A lowish amount of baclofen, around 25-50 mg/day, seemed to considerably ease this problem.

Obviously methamphetamine is way stronger than pseudoephedrine, but the principle could be the same. A large daily baclofen dose could possibly reduce cravings for meth, the way low doses removed cravings for pseudoephedrine.

Also I think I once read that one possible way baclofen works is by modifying dopamine activity in the brain, indirectly as a result of its GABA(B) agonist action. If it really does affect dopamine, then that would be further reason to believe it could help with stimulant dependence.

[RedThread12]

Does baclofen work for meth?

Don't know for sure, but here's a YouTube clip showing what happens when its used to treat cocaine addiction - probably crack, actually.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=byain0Vo5mo[/video]]Baclofen dramatically reduces cocaine craving - YouTube

Seems like a pretty sure thing that it could work with meth.

The Dr. in the video is talking about the "stop" system vs. the "go" system when the brains of addicts get millisecond stimulus images. I just mention that because it took me a bit to understand clearly.

[terryk]

Does baclofen work for meth?

You can search for abstracts of medical journal articles (and sometimes free fulltext ones) like these at PubMed.com (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed):

Management of methamphetamine abuse and ... [Curr Psychiatry Rep. 2006] - PubMed - NCBI

Curr Psychiatry Rep. 2006 Oct;8(5):345-54.
Management of methamphetamine abuse and dependence.
Ling W, Rawson R, Shoptaw S, Ling W.
Source

Integrated Substance Abuse Programs, David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, University of California-Los Angeles, 11075 Santa Monica Boulevard, Suite 200, Los Angeles, CA 90025, USA. lwalter@ix.netcom.com
Abstract

Preliminary implications for evidence-based treatments and future practice may be drawn from new research findings that inspire a fresh view of methamphetamine dependence and associated medical consequences. Current user populations include increasingly impacted subgroups (ie, youths, women, men who have sex with men, and rural residents); complex consequences of methamphetamine abuse among these subgroups require additional efforts involving contextual understanding of characteristics and needs to develop effective treatments. The neurobiological data on cellular activity of methamphetamine taken with findings from neuroimaging studies indicate potential targets for pharmacologic interventions. In early trials, several candidate medications--bupropion, modafinil, and, to a lesser extent, baclofen--have shown promise in treating aspects of methamphetamine dependence, including aiding memory function necessary to more effectively participate in and benefit from behavioral therapies. Clinicians and researchers must interact to efficiently address the problems of methamphetamine dependence, a major drug problem in the United States and the world.

PMID:
16968614
[PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]

The GABA-B positive modulator GS39783 decreases ... [Addict Biol. 2011] - PubMed - NCBI

Addict Biol. 2011 Jul;16(3):416-27. doi: 10.1111/j.1369-1600.2010.00278.x. Epub 2011 Feb 11.
The GABA-B positive modulator GS39783 decreases psychostimulant conditioned-reinforcement and conditioned-reward.
Halbout B, Quarta D, Valerio E, Heidbreder CA, Hutcheson DM.
Source

Department of Biology, Neurosciences CEDD, Italy.
Abstract

Baclofen, a γ-amino-butyric-acid (GABA)(B) receptor agonist, can reduce cue-enhanced cocaine-seeking in rats and attenuate cue-evoked craving in cocaine addicts. However, baclofen also has sedative effects that might interfere with its efficacy in reducing cocaine's rewarding effects. The present study aimed at comparing the effects of baclofen with the GABA(B) -receptor positive allosteric modulator GS39783 on psychostimulant conditioned cues. Two identically trained groups of male Lister-Hooded rats were baselined on a new responding for a light stimulus previously paired with cocaine self-administration. One group was treated with the GABA(B) -receptor positive allosteric modulator GS39783 (0, 10, 30, 100 mg/kg, i.p.), the other with baclofen (0, 0.6, 1.25, 1.9, 2.5 mg/kg, i.p.). In another series of experiments, male Wistar rats received GS39783 (0, 10, 30, 100 mg/kg, i.p.) or baclofen (1.25 mg/kg) prior to the expression of a conditioned place preference (CPP) to amphetamine (2 mg/kg i.p.). Both GS39783 (30 and 100 mg/kg) and baclofen (2.5 mg/kg) significantly decreased responding for the cocaine cue; however, only GS39783 (30 mg/kg) reduced lever pressing responding without interfering with locomotor activity. Both GS39783 (30 and 100 mg/kg) and baclofen (1.25 mg/kg), significantly blocked the expression of amphetamine CPP without affecting locomotor activity. These findings suggest that GABA(B) positive allosteric modulators can modulate discrete and contextual psychostimulant conditioned stimuli in a manner dissociable from unwanted sedative effects and may offer a novel therapeutic approach to treat cravings and relapse to drug-taking triggered by stimuli associated with psychostimulant use.

? 2011 The Authors, Addiction Biology ? 2011 Society for the Study of Addiction.

PMID:
21309927
[PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]

-tk

[BacloTim]

Does baclofen work for meth?

Personally I know that using Crack or Meth while on high dose baclofen seems to take away the intense high. After the first hit I can just turn it down. No idea of the science behind this but just my 2 cents. I even cut back my baclofen so I could get high at my worst point lately and it did make a difference.

-bTim