Cha. 9: Cocaine Abuse & Dependence Flashcards
Cocaine is a CNS _____.
Stimulant
Cocaine has the same effects as _____.
Amphetamines/methamphetamines
- Euphoric, energized, hypersexual, charged-up, reduced need for sleep
- Heart rate/blood pressure increases
What are the medical uses for cocaine?
In some places, it’s used as a local anesthetic
How many people use cocaine?
A couple of million people are regular abusers
- 30 million have tried cocaine, or use socially
Regular cocaine use can cause:
Dependency, tolerance, and withdrawal
What is the half-life of cocaine?
30-90 minutes
Cocaine causes a depletion of _____.
Dopamine
People who use a lot of cocaine, then stop, their mood flattens causing _____.
Depression
What is the purpose of mixing cocaine and alcohol/benzodiazepines?
- Cocaine to get up, alcohol/benzo’s to go down
- Takes a lot of Valium to bring a cocaine user down
Mixing cocaine with a narcotic causes:
- Respiratory depression (shallow breathing) is risk with narcotics
- Cocaine increases risk of this happening
How is cocaine ingested?
- Snorting
- Injection (most rapid absorption)
- Smoking
- Freebasing
- Rectal
- Sublingual
_____ is very cheap, smoked, most readily used today, whereas _____ is very expensive.
Crack; cocaine
Addiction to cocaine, if used regularly, takes _____.
Weeks/months
What are the symptoms of consistent use of cocaine?
- Risk of seizures/heart attacks/strokes
- Crack lung: close to asthma
- Crack nose: cartilage is eaten away in nose
- Hyperthermia
- Toxic to heart muscle, leading to cardio myopathy
- Heart arrhythmia, tachycardia, heart beat abnormalities
- Maybe liver damage
- Verbal learning, memory, and ability to attend degraded
- Possibly more assertive, aggressive, assaultive, suspicious, paranoid, psychotic as time goes on with regular use
What is done during detox from cocaine?
Medically stabilize
- Keep heart rate down, keep from having heart attack/stroke while they’re fighting you
- Wait for cocaine to get out of system
