The predominant view of chronic cocaine use maintains that it causes a broad range of cognitive deficits. However, concerns about the possibly deleterious impact of cocaine on cognitive functioning have yet to be thoroughly vetted. This review addresses the impact of cocaine use on such cognitive domains as executive function, memory, language, and psychomotor speed. Additionally, relevant neuroimaging data is considered to understand the neural basis underlying cocaine-related effects on cognitive functioning.
Long-Term Effects of Crack Cocaine Abuse on the Mind
Specifically, cocaethylene, the metabolite resulting from the concomitant use of alcohol and cocaine, has a known toxicity (Jones, 2019). This potent stimulant is more toxic than cocaine itself and has a longer half-life. On the other hand, the increased risk of hospitalization for women with CUD requires an accurate evaluation of the continuum of care and care coordination after discharge. Maceira et al. [45] found that cocaine abusers had increased LV end-systolic volume, LV mass index, and right ventricular (RV) end-systolic volume, with decreased LV ejection fraction and RV ejection fraction. The study participants were 94 cocaine abusers aged 37 ± 7 years (86% male) attending a rehabilitation clinic for the first time.
The long-term effects of cocaine use on cognitive functioning: A systematic critical review
For this reason, you might hear the terms “crack” and “freebase” used interchangeably. For example, cocaine acts by binding to the dopamine transporter, blocking the removal of dopamine from the synapse. Dopamine then accumulates in the synapse to produce an amplified signal to the receiving neurons.
Integrated Care and Combined Treatments
However, differences in cognitive performance were observed on a minority of measures. Additionally, the majority of studies were not compared against how to stop binge drinking normative data. Despite CBT-SUD’s empirical support, several treatment considerations and implementation barriers are important to note.
Treatments Targeting Cognitive Deficits
Disulfiram (a medication that has been used to treat alcohol abuse) in combination with behavioral treatment, has been successful in reducing cocaine abuse. Cocaine has been found to trigger chaotic heart rhythms called ventricular fibrillation, accelerate heartbeat and breathing, and increase blood pressure and body temperature. Physical symptoms may include chest pain, nausea, blurred vision, fever, muscle spasms, convulsions, coma, and death.
Risk of stroke and heart attack
Cocaine withdrawal can cause problems with the brain, behavior, mood, gastrointestinal tract, and other body functions. An individual suffering from a cocaine abuse disorder (addiction) will compulsively seek out the drug, despite any problems it may be causing in their life. Repeated cocaine abuse causes an increased tolerance, which means that a greater amount is needed for the same effects as before.
Combined with the drug’s toxins, this could cause lung damage or aggravate a person’s asthma. For those who snort cocaine, the nasal cavity and throat can become permanently damaged. For the nose, these damages can include anosmia (loss sense of smell), nostril ulcers, irritation of the nose, nasopharyngeal mucosal inflammation, prolonged nosebleeds and runny nose, and nasal congestion and septum perforation.
Vertava Health is here to help people overcome their addictions, and learn to embrace life to the fullest. When a person uses cocaine, it causes them to 6 strategies to safely detox for pregnancy become overly energetic, talkative, and unable to focus. A cocaine high doesn’t last very long, and it can be over in anywhere from 5 to 30 minutes.
The major routes of administration of cocaine are inhaling (or snorting), injecting, and smoking. There is great risk regardless of the method of use, and it is possible to overdose fatally. Compulsive cocaine use may develop even more rapidly if the substance is smoked rather than snorted.
Normally, neurons release dopamine in response to a pleasurable stimulus, such as the smell of good food. Once the dopamine has passed on its message, it returns inside the neuron, and the signal stops. The effect is intense and virtually immediate, as with injected cocaine, but the “high” lasts only around 5 minutes. Crack producers make crack with baking soda (sodium bicarbonate) or ammonia and water, and it is heated to remove the hydrochloride.
At low doses, cocaine-induced sympathetic effects increase heart rate, blood pressure, and myocardial contractibility, leading to increased myocardial oxygen demand [33]. Cocaine also enhances coronary spasm/vasoconstriction and platelet adherence/thrombosis, leading to reduced myocardial oxygen supply [34]. At high doses, cocaine-induced local anesthesia results in decreased left ventricular (LV) contractibility and prolongation of QRS and QT intervals in electrocardiograms by blocking sodium transport and norepinephrine uptake in the myocardium [4]. In vessels, cocaine contributes to MI by increasing endothelin-1 [36] and reducing nitric oxide production in endothelial cells [37]. When vessels are stressed, acute damages/ruptures can occur, which promotes thrombosis by increasing platelet activity/aggregation [38,39] and elevating fibrinogen levels [40] and plasminogen activator inhibitor activity [41,42]. These cellular and molecular cascades result in reduced cardiac blood flow, leading to acute MI and possibly atherosclerosis and coronary thrombosis in the long term [43,44].
These feelings are incredibly reinforced at these high amounts, leading a person to crave more of this highly addictive drug quickly. Chronic use of cocaine increases the chances of long-term central nervous system damage, which makes it important for the addict to get treatment as soon as possible. These damages include blood vessel narrowing in the brain, seizures, hemorrhaging alcohol abuse articles or oxygen depletion that can cause a stroke in the brain, dopamine reduction, full deterioration of the brain, and movement disorders. There are no medications currently available to treat cocaine abuse specifically. Consequently, the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) is aggressively pursuing the identification and testing of new cocaine treatment medications.
At the same time, strong evidence indicates that synaptic alterations in mesolimbic pathways are related to drug and food addiction, and mutual neural substrates for both DA-dependent disorders have been described [12,13]. Specifically, it has been demonstrated that DA is involved in reward-related incentive learning [14,15]. A reward is the attractive and motivational property of a stimulus that induces appetitive and consummatory behaviors [16,17]. Studies in rats with chronic exposure to drugs of abuse, such as cocaine, showed adaptations of the dopaminergic system (VTA/NAc) caused by the upregulation of the DA receptor D1 and the downregulation of the DA receptor D2 [18]. Albeit the neurobiology of SZ and, in general, of psychotic spectrum disorders remains to be elucidated, dopaminergic dysregulation in the mesocortical targets has been proposed as one of the most accepted theories involved in the symptomatology of these diseases (“DA hypothesis”) [8].
Several emerging compounds are being investigated to assess their safety and efficacy. Two medicines currently marketed for other conditions, topiramate and modafinil, have shown promise. Additionally, baclofen, a GABA-B agonist, has shown promise in a subgroup of cocaine addicts with heavy use patterns. Antidepressant drugs are of some benefit with regard to mood changes experienced during the early stages of cocaine abuse.
Small amounts of cocaine usually make people feel euphoric, energetic, talkative, mentally alert, and hypersensitive to sight, sound, and touch. The drug can also temporarily decrease the need for food and sleep.14 Some people find that cocaine helps them perform simple physical and intellectual tasks more quickly, although others experience the opposite effect. On the other hand, we cannot fully explain how Mr. Z did not present EPSs following having taken lurasidone.
- Cocaine is the second most abused drug, followed by heroin and methamphetamine.
- For one thing, the high feels very pleasurable, especially when you first try it.
- AS and RM designed the study and wrote the first draft of the manuscript.
- Within this broader category, CM and CBT-SUD currently have the greatest empirical support in positive treatment outcomes (eg, reduced cocaine use), collectively garnered over approximately 3 decades of research and application.
Cocaine is the active ingredient in the smokable substance known as crack. Abusing cocaine is dangerous, and may lead to serious, sometimes irreversible long-term effects, and addiction. In the 1960s, illicit cocaine use rebounded, and by the late 1970s, the drug had become popular among middle- and upper-middle-class Americans.