The detrimental physical effects of cocaine are well documented, but lesser known is its neurological impact on brain functioning, in areas such as attention span, decision-making and memory.
Second most commonly used narcotic after cannabis
With a business model of selling at over ten times the cost of acquisition and production, the illegal cocaine industry is estimated to be worth around $1.8 trillion.A naturally occurring stimulant and pain blocker, cocaine is extracted from the leaves of the wild growing Erythroxylon Coca in the rolling Andean highlands of western South America, and up until 1903 was an active ingredient in the Coca-Cola drink, and before that used widely in practical medicine as an anaesthetic.
Publicly used by historical figures from Freud to Hitler and known today by a number of street names, coke is the second most commonly used narcotic after cannabis and one of the most addictive, coming in at a narrow second place behind heroin.
Professor David Nutt, of the Division of Brain Sciences at Imperial College, London, along with a panel of experts, has ranked it as one of the most damaging drugs in the world, and cocaine’s destructive grasp on its user reaches far beyond its short term effects.
Cocaine affects almost every part of the body
The shocking physical effects of cocaine addiction have been widely publicised in anti-drug campaigns. Cocaine ingestion affects almost every part of the body. In the long term, cocaine users experience reduced blood flow in the gastrointestinal tract, which can lead to stomach ulcers and potentially life threatening tears, often requiring surgery.
Cocaine also serves as an appetite suppressant, and delaying or skipping food intake can lead to weight loss and malnutrition, bringing with it a whole host of health issues. It has significant and well recognised toxic effects on the heart and cardiovascular system, causing chest pain and inflammation of the heart muscle, leading to a deterioration of the ability for the heart to contract, and subsequent aortic ruptures. High blood pressure, stiffer arteries and thicker heart muscle walls are also all commonly observed side effects of long term cocaine use.
Routes of administration can cause differing effects in users. Snorting cocaine will eventually lead to extensive nasal damage, resulting in nosebleeds, a loss of smell, problems swallowing, hoarseness and irritation of the nasal septum, leading to a chronically inflamed runny nose. Smoking crack cocaine damages the lungs, and complications can result in triggering or worsening conditions such as asthma. Problems breathing can lead to respiratory failure, collapsed lungs and even death. Injecting cocaine can lead to nerve damage and increased risk of contracting blood-borne infections such as HIV and hepatitis. Puncture marks from needles can become infected and lead to septicaemia, another life threatening condition.
Brain cells begin to cannibalise themselves
The detrimental physical effects of cocaine are well documented, but lesser known is its neurological impact on brain functioning, in areas such as attention span, decision making and memory.
Firstly, cocaine use can bring about intracerebral haemorrhage (more commonly known as bleeding of the brain), a life threatening type of stroke. Repeated use leads to the neural pathways associated with sustaining attention, impulse inhibition, memory, decision-making and motor tasks becoming damaged.
A Johns Hopkins university study supports the idea that high doses of cocaine accelerate the natural process of autophagy in the brain – a normal cellular clean-up of waste materials. When this process is accelerated, it spins out of control and causes the brain cells to literally cannibalise themselves. Some researchers have suggested this could be a factor in the association between cocaine use and the increased likelihood of developing Parkinson’s disease later on in life.
Cocaine causes brain cells to eat themselves, Johns Hopkins study finds
But it’s not only long term users who are at risk of suffering severe health problems at the hands of cocaine. The side effects aren’t only apparent after many years of abuse, with some users reporting heart conditions surfacing after their first hit.
Studies have shown that in some instances, sudden death can occur during the first instance of cocaine use or shortly after. Recent alarming research conducted at UC Berkeley has suggested that cocaine can rewire the brain entirely after a single use. Studies conducted using live mice, observed substantial growth of new dendritic spines, structures that connect neurones and essentially form the nodes of the brain’s circuit wiring, in the frontal lobe of the brain. These new spines rewired the brain to actively seek cocaine, possibly explaining why the search for a hit might override other priorities in human users. The changes were observed not only in the brain scans, but in their behaviour.
Cocaine addiction is a worldwide public health problem, which has somatic, psychiatric, socio-economic and judicial complications. The number of patients entering drug treatment for primary cocaine use has been increasing in Europe for several years, and looks set to increase further in the years to come.
City Addictions, January 14, 2017
RELATED CONTENT
The High Functioning Addict
Article
The pleasure derived from success is borne of the very same brain pathways that make substance use so irresistible to some. Traits that make a good CEO are exactly those that make a ‘good’ addict.
Nina Lakhani, reporting for The Independent, asks how an unchecked culture of legal drug addiction has been allowed to flourish, with two million addicted to tranquillisers, and many thousands abusing over-the-counter painkillers.
The drug ketamine is mainly used as an anaesthetic, particularly in emergency medicine. But in some countries, it's become popular as a recreational drug. China is one — the authorities there say its use is soaring among young people — while its price continues to drop.
Fry never took cocaine while he was working, on a stage or in a television studio. He would call it, rather creepily, the ‘pudding’ that would give him an extra 'reward' afterwards.
“The NHS is severely impaired in its ability to address new pathologies such as problem gambling, because it is having to spend all its money on drug and alcohol treatment” says psychiatrist Henrietta Bowden-Jones.
In making the drug illegal, the government only succeeded in compromising its quality and hiking up its price, making it not only more unaffordable, but more dangerous.
This BBC Newsnight report asks if the prescription drug addiction problem sweeping the United States could be replicated in the UK. With interviews with people who have struggled with addiction, and those offering help and support.
Did cocaine use by bankers cause the financial crisis?
Best Of The Web
Geraint Anderson, renegade stockbroker author of ‘Cityboy’, reflects on former drug tsar David Nutt’s opinion piece suggesting that coked-up bankers were responsible for the credit crunch.
Drugs, alcohol, exercise, sex, pornography, gambling....It seems anything pleasurable can become addictive, but how to draw the line between a harmless hobby and a problem? What elements of treatment are most important in helping tackle addictions?
Researchers in Germany dubbed a certain variant of the CAMK4 gene the ‘cocaine gene' after discovering that cocaine addicts were 25% more likely to carry this variant than non-users.
How cracking down on prescription peddling pain clinics created an even more devastating epidemic that remains ongoing and growing to this day: an eruption of widespread heroin addiction
Stuart Adams has a long history of addictive behaviour, particularly problem gambling. Now receiving counselling through GamCare he is attempting to turn his life around.
Professor David Nutt was infamously sacked from his role as Chief Drugs Advisor after publishing a report in the Lancet which challenged the government's policy on drugs, stating that alcohol is in fact more dangerous than heroin.
The reason behind the difference in MDMA’s biological interactivity for men and women is due to women typically having lower body mass indexes, but not adjusting their dosages appropriately to account for this.
There's a tendency in economics to think that financial risk-taking is a purely cognitive activity, but as Dr John Coates explains, it's more quirky than that. Young male city traders on a winning streak shift their risk preferences and take on too much risk.
When asked which drug kills the most users per year what springs to mind? Heroin? Cocaine? Certainly not Paracetamol. But prescription drug abuse is responsible for a significant number of drug related deaths across the globe.
Investigating this piece for The Mail on Sunday, Laura Topham discovered how ketamine, previously the preserve of hardcore clubbers, has became hugely popular with Britain's young upper classes.
Powder cocaine has a stereotyped reputation as the ‘recreational’ drug of choice for rich high-flyers in pressured jobs, but recreation can quickly become a destructive dependency. What are the reasons for this, and how can problematic use be alleviated with treatment?
Your Brain on Porn - Scary Effects of Porn Addiction
Video
Scientists in the field of neuroscience and brain imaging are showing in study after study that high speed internet porn can change the brain just like drug addiction. This wreaks havoc on the reward/pleasure system in the brain resulting in devastating effects.
What happens inside the brain of a gambling addict when they make a bet - and can the secret to their addiction be found within the brain itself? BBC Panorama filmed a unique experiment designed to find out.
Tinder has skyrocketed in popularity since its inception in 2012. Its trajectory has proven remarkable: within two short years it was registering about one billion ‘swipes’ per day opening up a whole new world of internet assisted casual sex.
Alex Aldridge, a freelance journalist writing in The Guardian, reflects on the implication given by the BBC drama Silk that cocaine use is rife in the legal profession.
While controversy over its definition – and even its very existence – continues to foment, sex addiction, all too often steeped in shame and guilt, is a very real problem that has a spectacular ability to destroy lives and relationships.
Ferris Jabr, reporting for Scientific American, discovers that pathological gamblers and drug addicts share many of the same genetic predispositions for impulsivity and reward seeking.
A short documentary looking at life the stories of eight alcoholics from their first drink, to their rock bottom, and then to their recovery. Director Mikey Trotter asks ‘what makes alcoholics drink’ and ‘how do you try and get sober.'
In this piece form Buzzfeed, Patrick Strudwick investigates the hidden world of "chemsex", following the conviction of Stephen Port for the rape, drugging, and murder of four young men.
Honey, it just doesn't work if it's not on the internet
Video
Patrick Carnes is a best-selling author and a leading proponent of the viewpoint that some sexual behaviour can be seen as an addiction. Indeed it was Carnes who popularised the term 'sex addiction'.
Clues from our distant ancestral past suggest that an attraction to alcohol may once have conferred an evolutionary advantage, and explain the the mystery of why we humans are often compelled to consume what is essentially a toxin.
Gambling is all around us, whether in casinos and betting shops, or in the growing number of online bingo and roulette websites. What determines who can keep it to the odd flutter, and for whom gambling can get out of control?
BBC's Weird Nature series shows how Vervet Monkeys in the Caribbean have taken to stealing cocktails from people on the beach. Studies show that they have the same percentage of teetotal and alcoholic individuals as the human population.
Reported cases of sex addiction in America are now in the millions. Some estimates suggest 3 to 5% of the American population, including stories of ordinary folk . . . like the Doherty’s from San Antonio
Ketamine has been on the club scene for decades, although only quite recently are its debilitating long-term side effects coming to light. But it's also a life saver in developing countries where it serves as a cheap and available anaesthetic.
Bruce Parry spends time with workers of an illegal cocaine-making factory located deep in the heart of the Amazon jungle. Remarkable footage from BBC documentary Amazon with Bruce Parry.
In this piece from The Guardian one woman speaks candidly about her experiences of blacking out after too much alcohol, and too many times, waking up in a stranger’s bed.
This piece from The Independent reveals that as far back as 2000 there was significant cause for concern that alcohol and drug taking in the legal professions was undermining public faith.
Toxicologist Richard Church has a simple warning for young party-goers who may think the club drug 'Molly', an allegedly pure form of MDMA, is safe. "Don't trust your drug dealer," says Dr Church. Molly is not the Molly they thought it was. It is not pure.
The pleasure derived from success is borne of the very same brain pathways that make substance use so irresistible to some. Traits that make a good CEO are exactly those that make a ‘good’ addict.
Nina Lakhani, reporting for The Independent, asks how an unchecked culture of legal drug addiction has been allowed to flourish, with two million addicted to tranquillisers, and many thousands abusing over-the-counter painkillers.
The drug ketamine is mainly used as an anaesthetic, particularly in emergency medicine. But in some countries, it's become popular as a recreational drug. China is one — the authorities there say its use is soaring among young people — while its price continues to drop.
Fry never took cocaine while he was working, on a stage or in a television studio. He would call it, rather creepily, the ‘pudding’ that would give him an extra 'reward' afterwards.
“The NHS is severely impaired in its ability to address new pathologies such as problem gambling, because it is having to spend all its money on drug and alcohol treatment” says psychiatrist Henrietta Bowden-Jones.
In making the drug illegal, the government only succeeded in compromising its quality and hiking up its price, making it not only more unaffordable, but more dangerous.
This BBC Newsnight report asks if the prescription drug addiction problem sweeping the United States could be replicated in the UK. With interviews with people who have struggled with addiction, and those offering help and support.
Did cocaine use by bankers cause the financial crisis?
Best Of The Web
Geraint Anderson, renegade stockbroker author of ‘Cityboy’, reflects on former drug tsar David Nutt’s opinion piece suggesting that coked-up bankers were responsible for the credit crunch.
Drugs, alcohol, exercise, sex, pornography, gambling....It seems anything pleasurable can become addictive, but how to draw the line between a harmless hobby and a problem? What elements of treatment are most important in helping tackle addictions?
Researchers in Germany dubbed a certain variant of the CAMK4 gene the ‘cocaine gene' after discovering that cocaine addicts were 25% more likely to carry this variant than non-users.
How cracking down on prescription peddling pain clinics created an even more devastating epidemic that remains ongoing and growing to this day: an eruption of widespread heroin addiction
Stuart Adams has a long history of addictive behaviour, particularly problem gambling. Now receiving counselling through GamCare he is attempting to turn his life around.
Professor David Nutt was infamously sacked from his role as Chief Drugs Advisor after publishing a report in the Lancet which challenged the government's policy on drugs, stating that alcohol is in fact more dangerous than heroin.
The reason behind the difference in MDMA’s biological interactivity for men and women is due to women typically having lower body mass indexes, but not adjusting their dosages appropriately to account for this.
There's a tendency in economics to think that financial risk-taking is a purely cognitive activity, but as Dr John Coates explains, it's more quirky than that. Young male city traders on a winning streak shift their risk preferences and take on too much risk.
When asked which drug kills the most users per year what springs to mind? Heroin? Cocaine? Certainly not Paracetamol. But prescription drug abuse is responsible for a significant number of drug related deaths across the globe.
Investigating this piece for The Mail on Sunday, Laura Topham discovered how ketamine, previously the preserve of hardcore clubbers, has became hugely popular with Britain's young upper classes.
Powder cocaine has a stereotyped reputation as the ‘recreational’ drug of choice for rich high-flyers in pressured jobs, but recreation can quickly become a destructive dependency. What are the reasons for this, and how can problematic use be alleviated with treatment?
Your Brain on Porn - Scary Effects of Porn Addiction
Video
Scientists in the field of neuroscience and brain imaging are showing in study after study that high speed internet porn can change the brain just like drug addiction. This wreaks havoc on the reward/pleasure system in the brain resulting in devastating effects.
What happens inside the brain of a gambling addict when they make a bet - and can the secret to their addiction be found within the brain itself? BBC Panorama filmed a unique experiment designed to find out.
Tinder has skyrocketed in popularity since its inception in 2012. Its trajectory has proven remarkable: within two short years it was registering about one billion ‘swipes’ per day opening up a whole new world of internet assisted casual sex.
Alex Aldridge, a freelance journalist writing in The Guardian, reflects on the implication given by the BBC drama Silk that cocaine use is rife in the legal profession.
While controversy over its definition – and even its very existence – continues to foment, sex addiction, all too often steeped in shame and guilt, is a very real problem that has a spectacular ability to destroy lives and relationships.
Ferris Jabr, reporting for Scientific American, discovers that pathological gamblers and drug addicts share many of the same genetic predispositions for impulsivity and reward seeking.
A short documentary looking at life the stories of eight alcoholics from their first drink, to their rock bottom, and then to their recovery. Director Mikey Trotter asks ‘what makes alcoholics drink’ and ‘how do you try and get sober.'
In this piece form Buzzfeed, Patrick Strudwick investigates the hidden world of "chemsex", following the conviction of Stephen Port for the rape, drugging, and murder of four young men.
Honey, it just doesn't work if it's not on the internet
Video
Patrick Carnes is a best-selling author and a leading proponent of the viewpoint that some sexual behaviour can be seen as an addiction. Indeed it was Carnes who popularised the term 'sex addiction'.
Clues from our distant ancestral past suggest that an attraction to alcohol may once have conferred an evolutionary advantage, and explain the the mystery of why we humans are often compelled to consume what is essentially a toxin.
Gambling is all around us, whether in casinos and betting shops, or in the growing number of online bingo and roulette websites. What determines who can keep it to the odd flutter, and for whom gambling can get out of control?
BBC's Weird Nature series shows how Vervet Monkeys in the Caribbean have taken to stealing cocktails from people on the beach. Studies show that they have the same percentage of teetotal and alcoholic individuals as the human population.
Reported cases of sex addiction in America are now in the millions. Some estimates suggest 3 to 5% of the American population, including stories of ordinary folk . . . like the Doherty’s from San Antonio
Ketamine has been on the club scene for decades, although only quite recently are its debilitating long-term side effects coming to light. But it's also a life saver in developing countries where it serves as a cheap and available anaesthetic.
Bruce Parry spends time with workers of an illegal cocaine-making factory located deep in the heart of the Amazon jungle. Remarkable footage from BBC documentary Amazon with Bruce Parry.
In this piece from The Guardian one woman speaks candidly about her experiences of blacking out after too much alcohol, and too many times, waking up in a stranger’s bed.
This piece from The Independent reveals that as far back as 2000 there was significant cause for concern that alcohol and drug taking in the legal professions was undermining public faith.
Toxicologist Richard Church has a simple warning for young party-goers who may think the club drug 'Molly', an allegedly pure form of MDMA, is safe. "Don't trust your drug dealer," says Dr Church. Molly is not the Molly they thought it was. It is not pure.