Methamphetamine Use Disorder Support in Heart Failure Pilot Study

What to expect

No one can promise a trial will help you personally — that is what the research is trying to find out.

What participation involves

• Time periods mentioned: 6 months
• Procedures mentioned: Questionnaires

Only what the study's summary and detailed description on ClinicalTrials.gov say. Time periods may describe the whole study or a part of it — ask the study team what applies to you.

Compensation

Not stated

• Study-related exams and procedures are typically provided at no cost. This is how many trials work in general — confirm the details for this study with the study team.
• Participants are monitored closely by the research team throughout the study.
• Some participants may receive access to an investigational treatment, which is still being studied.
• Your participation helps researchers learn whether this approach could help future patients.

About this study

Heart failure (HF) affects over 6 million people in the US and is a major cause of both hospital admissions and death. HF has many causes and contributing factors. One of the most aggressive forms of HF is associated with methamphetamine abuse, which has become its own epidemic in the US over the past twenty years. People who use methamphetamine tend to develop HF at a much younger age, with more severe disease and more serious consequences. A recent analysis using nationwide data, methamphetamine use doubled the risk of death or hospitalizations compared to non-users in patients with HF. Thus, methamphetamine users with HF represent a very high-risk group of patients from a healthcare perspective. HF may be reversible in some patients who use methamphetamine if patients can achieve 1) abstain from further methamphetamine use and 2) consistently take all the medications that can improve HF. These two goals are very difficult to achieve in practice, as the care of both methamphetamine addiction and HF requires specialized medical expertise and intensive regular follow up of patients. In general, achievement of one goal is not possible without the other. Patients who use methamphetamine have poor adherence to medical follow-up and therapies, and abstinence from methamphetamine is difficult to maintain. This is further complicated because the current model of HF care does not incorporate treatment for methamphetamine use. The current study proposes to launch a multidisciplinary clinic that treats both HF and methamphetamine use disorder at the same time. The HF care will be led by a cardiologist while the methamphetamine use treatment will be led by a psychiatric clinical pharmacist trained in addiction medicine. State-of-the-art HF care will include optimization of four pillar HF medications. Methamphetamine use treatment will include counseling and incentivized abstinence known as contingency management (CM). The investigators will manage the patients in the clinic for 6 months total. The investigators are interested in demonstrating that this integrated clinic model will result in improved delivery of care for these patients by reporting the rates of successful abstinence from methamphetamine, improved optimization of the four HF medications, and enhanced patient reported quality of life over the 6 months of follow up. The investigators will also collect data on the costs associated with providing this level of care and estimate a range of potential cost-savings.

Compensation is read from the study's own description and may be missing — always confirm with the study team.

Eligibility

Study sites (2)