The consequences of regular methamphetamine use in Tehran: qualitative content analysis

Babak Rastegarimehr,Javad Yoosefi Lebni,Morteza Mansourian,Amin Mirzaei,Omid Safari,Mostafa Qorbani,Arash Ziapour,Bahar Khosravi,Fereshteh Baygi

doi:10.1186/s13011-020-00277-3

Abstract

BackgroundIn recent years, methamphetamine use has increased noticeably in Iran, and this can make harmful consequences for the health of individuals and society. Therefore, the study aimed to investigate the consequences of regular methamphetamine use in Tehran.MethodsThis study was conducted based on a conventional content analysis approach. Data were collected through observation and in-depth interviews with 20 regular adult users of methamphetamine in Tehran (including 15 males and 5 females). Participants were selected using snowball sampling and purposeful sampling, which continued until data saturation. Guba and Lincoln’s criteria were used to assess the strength of the study.ResultsThe extraction of the codes resulted in three main categories: (1)the short-term consequences, consisting of the sub-categories of individual and social consequences, (2) the long-term consequences, consisting of the sub-categories of psychological and physical consequences, high-risk behaviors, severely decayed memory and changes in the eating pattern, and (3) hallucinations and delusions including the sub-categories of visual and auditory hallucinations, persecutory delusions and delusion of having supernatural power.ConclusionRegular methamphetamine use may have serious adverse effects on the overall health of individuals. It is therefore highly recommended that educational programs must implement with the use of methamphetamine in the high- risk groups in order to raise awareness and change attitudes about the short and long term consequences. is highly recommended.

Highlights

In recent years, methamphetamine use has increased noticeably in Iran, and this can make harmful consequences for the health of individuals and society
This study aimed to explore the consequences of regular methamphetamine use in Tehran
The results showed that methamphetamine consumption in the short period is accompanied by individuals with the consequences of being happier, increased confidence, increased concentration, improved sexual power and social consequences such as getting more sociable, etc., leading to more desire to continue of the consumption, which was in line with results found by Kennedy [42], Bustani and Karamizadeh [43], Mohib Ali et al [44], and Sia Johnny et al [45]

Summary

Introduction

Methamphetamine use has increased noticeably in Iran, and this can make harmful consequences for the health of individuals and society. Uncommon compounds, and different degrees of purity, low cost and high income, easy availability, simple and little needed equipment, the possibility of mass production, and difficulty in identifying laboratories make its trade very lucrative [17]. It can cause a lot of dangers, such as explosion, burns, lung burns and even cancer, for manufacturers and those who are near the places of production and exposed to waste [18,19,20]. Ahmad Hatim [15] conducted a study on methamphetamine dependence in Malaysia, and the results showed that the prevalence of psychiatric co-morbidity among these people was 54.4%, the prevalence of suicide was 12.1, and 47.9% of these people had high levels of methamphetamine-induced psychosis

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Discussion

Conclusion