Ready2Change - Methamphetamine Trial

Overview

Australia has one of the highest rates of methamphetamine use in the world; however, uptake of face-to-face psychological treatment remains extremely low due to numerous individual (e.g. experiences of shame and stigma) and structural (e.g. service availability, geography) barriers to accessing care. Key challenges have been the high addiction propensity of methamphetamine, and the lack of effective pharmacological and psychosocial treatments that can be delivered to scale.

Many of the known barriers to accessing treatment can be overcome by providing programs that are telephone-delivered, which can be accessed from anywhere in Australia. This mode of delivery particularly benefits individuals in regional and remote settings, who experience significant challenges in accessing evidence-based treatment. This RCT aims to determine the efficacy of the Ready2Change (R2C), a telephone-delivered, multi-session intervention in reducing methamphetamine use among a community sample of individuals with alcohol use problems. The trial will recruit 108 participants aged 18+ years, with mild-to-moderate methamphetamine use disorder, who will be assigned by chance to receive R2C-M or another brief intervention (i.e. control group). People with methamphetamine use disorder form a large, highly stigmatised group with significant mortality and morbidity, for whom new and effective treatments are urgently needed. If found to be effective, the R2C-M model will fill a significant public need, providing an innovative, cost-effective, scalable means of early intervention for reducing methamphetamine use and associated problems.