In the late twentieth and early twenty-first century United States, the production and misuse of methamphetamine was a growing and urgent public health, criminal justice, and child welfare problem affecting [...]
In posts of this site, we begin with an introductory discussion of the history and epidemiology of methamphetamine. Despite intense publicity in the popular press in the 1990s and early 2000s, methamphetamine was not a new drug, nor were problems with its misuse. Methamphetamine was synthesized more than 100 years ago by a German chemist [...]
Post Methamphetamine-Involved Families reveals that many children placed in foster care whose parent misuse methamphetamine experience high levels of trauma symptoms and behavior problems. Post Meeting the Mental Health Needs of Rural Children in Foster Families describes Life Story Intervention, a mental health intervention we designed specifically for rural children from methamphetamine-involved families. We discuss [...]
Methamphetamine misuse has been a persistent problem worldwide, demonstrating an interaction frequently observed in addiction medicine between the biology and cultural context of addiction. Examination of the cultural and historical contexts of methamphetamine misuse reveals some common themes related to the biology of addiction, with [...]
Methamphetamine is one of many stimulants (e.g., amphetamine, cocaine, caffeine, nicotine) with a wide variety of molecular structures and chemical mechanisms. What the various stimulants have in common are effects that mimic those of the sympathetic nervous system, both peripheral and central nervous system components, to produce arousing effects similar to epinephrine. The peripheral nervous [...]
The persistent and widespread problem of methamphetamine misuse is shaped not only by the biology of addiction, but by historical and cultural contexts. Methamphetamine is a methylated derivative of amphetamine, which was first synthesized in 1887, by a German chemist. It was first synthesized from ephedrine in 1893, [...]
The interaction among the biology of addiction, market economics, and other aspects of cultural context also has been observed repeatedly in the United States. In the years after World War II, over-the-counter drugs containing methamphetamine were widely available in the United States. Amphetamine tablets were available without prescription until 1951, and amphetamine-containing inhalers were available [...]
ContentsPhase 1: Ethnographic-Developmental Overview of Parental Methamphetamine Misuse and Children’s Psychological FunctioningPhase 2: Design of a Culturally Sensitive, Evidence-Based InterventionPhase 3: Evaluation of Life Story Intervention ConclusionIn approaching the problem of parental methamphetamine misuse, we chose a mixed-methods research strategy. This choice reflects our underlying interest in understanding human development as an outgrowth of cultural [...]
Post Methamphetamine-Involved Families of this site provides an in-depth description of the problem of parental methamphetamine misuse in the cultural context of rural Illinois and a description of affected children’s psychological functioning. We attempt to understand, in depth, the socialization beliefs and practices of adults, as well as children’s [...]
Phase three of our research program will be foreshadowed in Post Meeting the Mental Health Needs of Rural Children in Foster Families of the site, in a presentation of the pilot-tested intervention. We describe the conceptual and empirical bases of Life Story Intervention, as well as implementation issues. We also [...]