Methamphetamine  - metamfetamine, methylamphetamine, N-methylamphetamine, desoxyephedrine, and "meth" – is an amphetamine said to produce [and I quote] “alertness, concentration, energy, and in high doses, euphoria, self-esteem, and increased libido” and if you believe that, you’ll believe anything.  In general, as you will see from the papers below, the main side effect is brain damage and permanent psychosis.

It works as a releasing agent on - dopamine, norepinephrine and serotonin. Quite extraordinarily, Methamphetamine is “FDA approved for the treatment of ADHD and exogenous obesity” and marketed in the USA under the trademark name Desoxyn [see separate entry].

Methamphetamine is illegally synthesized and then sold in a crystalline form as "crystal meth". People who use any form can experience [unsurprisingly] very severe withdrawal symptoms lasting some time when they experience depression, fatigue, excessive sleeping and an increased appetite. “Chronic methamphetamine abuse may result in prolonged psychiatric disorders, cognitive impairment, as well as an increased risk of developing Parkinson's disease”

For EROWID entry see LINK

Dale Pendell in his wonderful book Pharmakodynamis had a rather poor opinion of the effects of amphetamine and methamphetamine saying the people who had taken them have “a boorish overpowering presence. Talking more than listening. Starting ten jobs and finishing none of them. A trail of chaos. Sweating. A distinctive meth ‘smell’ or ‘vibe’ palpably apparent to everyone else in the room”. I am told that many in the financial services industry and other so called high powered jobs – property developers, politicians, marketing people, people developing nuclear power plants etc are extensive users of amphetamines.

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Oral manifestations of "meth mouth": a case report.

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Drug Alcohol Depend. 2015 Mar 1;148:158-64. doi: 10.1016/j.drugalcdep.2014.12.035. Epub 2015 Jan 13.  Persistence of psychotic symptoms as an indicator of cognitive impairment in methamphetamine users.  Chen CK1, Lin SK2, Chen YC1, Huang MC3, Chen TT4, Ree SC1, Wang LJ5.

BACKGROUND: Prolonged exposure to methamphetamine (meth) has neurotoxic effects and impairs neurocognitive functions. This study aims to ascertain whether meth users who experience persistent psychosis suffer more severe cognitive impairment than those not experiencing persistent psychosis.

METHODS:  This cross-sectional study includes 252 participants: 25 meth users without psychosis (METH-P), 50 with brief psychosis (METH+BP), and 56 with persistent psychosis (METH+PP), as well as 54 patients with schizophrenia and 67 healthy controls. The neurocognitive function and clinical psychopathology of each patient were evaluated with the Brief Assessment of Cognition in Schizophrenia (BACS) and the Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale (BPRS), respectively.

RESULTS:  All cognitive domains evaluated with BACS (verbal memory, working memory, motor speed, verbal fluency, attention and processing speed, executive function, and composite scores) in METH+PP patients were similar to those in the schizophrenia patients and were worse than those in METH-P, METH+BP, and the healthy control subjects. Furthermore, cognitive functioning in meth users that did not experience persistent psychosis showed no statistically significant difference compared with the healthy control subjects. Among the meth users in this study, the negative symptom scores in the BPRS correlated to cognitive performance on the BACS, with the exception of motor speed.

CONCLUSIONS:  Meth users display heterogeneity in their psychotic symptoms and cognitive profiles. Therefore, persistent psychotic symptoms may denote a risk for cognitive decline among meth users. Further longitudinal studies should be performed in the future to clarify the causal relationship between cognitive deficits and the development of persistent psychosis.

PMID:  25601645