Treating stimulant use disorders: still searching for signals

Abstract

“You can't judge a book by its cover.” Most of us first hear something along these lines during childhood, as the recipients of generally unrequested advice from an adult whom we experience as condescending. I was reminded of the admonition in thinking about the study covered as this month's lead article, which I had initially passed by after glancing only at its title: “Association of pharmacological treatments and hospitalization and death in individuals with amphetamine use disorders in a Swedish nationwide cohort of 13,965 patients.” I mistakenly thought the focus was on risk factors affecting the outcomes of people with substance use disorders (SUDs) — a manifestly important issue, but one that we do not generally address in the Update. I looked more closely at the article after recognizing several of the authors, Heikkinen and colleagues (2022), and reflecting on its publication in one of our most prestigious journals, JAMA Psychiatry.