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At this point in time, the most effective type of intervention and treatment for methamphetamine addiction is Cognitive Behavioral. This approach is designed to help modify the patients' thinking, expectancies, and behaviors and to increase skills in coping with various life stressors. Methamphetamine recovery support groups also appear to be effective adjuncts to behavioral interventions that can lead to long-term drug-free recovery. There are some established protocols that emergency room physicians use to treat individuals who have had a methamphetamine overdose. Because hyperthermia and convulsions are common and often fatal complications of such overdoses, emergency room treatment focuses on the immediate physical symptoms. Overdose patients are cooled off in ice baths, and anticonvulsant drugs may be administered also. Acute methamphetamine intoxication can often be handled by observation in a safe, quiet environment. In cases of extreme excitement or panic, treatment with antianxiety agents such as benzodiazepines has been helpful, and in cases of methamphetamine-induced psychoses, short-term use of neuroleptics has proven successful.

There are numerous obstacles when treating an individual for meth addiction. These treatment obstacles include but are not limited to:

• behavior resembling paranoid schizophrenia
• body image fixations
• decreased social skills
• delusions
• depression
• disorganized lifestyle
• disturbance of normal personality development
• insomnia
• lowered resistance to illnesses
• malnutrition
• ongoing violent and aggressive behavior
• permanent psychological problems
• physical complications, such as: kidney and lung disorders, liver damage
• poor coping abilities
• possible brain damage due to the destruction (loss) of nerve cells
• recurring hallucinations
• suicidal feelings
• weight loss