In “The ‘meth’ epidemic: Acute intoxication” (Current Psychiatry, November 2006), Drs. J. Michael Bostwick and Timothy W. Lineberry address the striking similarities between schizophrenia symptoms and the residual psychotic features after methamphetamine use. Several risk factors have been associated with methamphetamine psychosis, especially in recently published studies.
One such study associated increased met allele frequency of the catechol-O-methyl transferase with methamphetamine psychosis.1 Another recent study also suggested that Ala/Val polymorphism of the superoxide dismutase 2 (SOD2) gene could be a risk factor for developing methamphetamine psychosis.2 SOD2 normally protects cells from free radical damage.
Premorbid brain dysfunction and schizotypal and schizoid personality disorders also have been considered risk factors for psychosis among methamphetamine users.3,4
Adegboyega Oyemade, MD
Addiction psychiatry fellow
Yale University
New Haven, CT