People Seeking Treatment for Meth/Amphetamine Use Are Getting Older and Treatment Services Need to Adapt

INTRODUCTION: Harms associated with meth/amphetamine use increase with cumulative exposure and overlap with age-related health conditions. Understanding demographic shifts in drug treatment populations is required to ensure services meet evolving needs. METHODS: We analysed data from the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare's Alcohol and Other Drug Treatment Services National Minimum Data Set, including all treatment episodes where meth/amphetamine was the primary drug of concern from 2003-04 (first data available) to 2023-24. Weighted linear regression assessed changes in age distribution over time. RESULTS: The analysis included 697,280 treatment episodes, 35% (n = 245,782) of whom were female. In 2003-04, people aged 20-29 years were the largest group accessing treatment (n = 6835, 48%), but by 2023-24 those aged 30-39 were the largest group seeking treatment for meth/amphetamine use (n = 258,063, 39%, p < 0.001). Over the last 20 years, the most pronounced increases occurred among adults over the age of 50 years, with treatment episodes increasing 16-fold (from 64 to 4313, p < 0.001) among those aged 50-59 and 13-fold (from 11 to 609, p < 0.001) among those aged 60 years and over. DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS: The population seeking treatment for meth/amphetamine use disorder is ageing, outpacing the general Australian population. The absence of policies and practice guidance for management of meth/amphetamine use disorder and coexisting conditions among older people represents a critical gap. Treatment services must adapt to provide age-appropriate care for older Australians, as the proportion of people over the age of 50 accessing treatment continues to grow.