[Secondary development of psychological dependence in a methamphetamine dependent]

A case of methamphetamine dependence was presented, who had used a large amount of the drug for a long time during both of the first and the second period of its prevalence. He led a socially and psychologically stable life with neither drug habits nor episodes of flash-back phenomenon in 20's and 30's of his age. While in the former period of the prevalence, visual illusion had occurred in him 3 months after the first injection of the drug, in the latter, auditory hallucination occurred in a month after the initiation of the reinjection. This hallucination was so invasive and persistent that he became insomniac and could not keep stable daily life. Recently the auditory hallucination has disappeared by the reinjection of the drug, resulting in releasing him from the sufferings like insomnia, and then promoting the drug use more frequently. Even at the law court to decide the penalty against his illegal drug use, he recurrently insisted that methamphetamine was his necessity in order to be freed from the hallucination and keep stable daily life. He declared his intention not to abandon his drug habit in spite of any punishments. On the central nervous system (CNS) depressants such as the morphine- and barbiturate-type drug, the psychological dependence is brought about secondarily by the mechanism to avoid the withdrawal symptoms. On the other hand, the secondary development of psychological dependence through avoidance of the chronic toxicity by the acute drug effect itself, should be considered as one of the characteristics of the CNS stimulants like methamphetamine.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)