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Describe the general situation at the present with the addicted person.
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The effects of cocaine take place very quickly and cause the user to feel euphoric, excited, less hungry, and strong. After the extreme but short lived “high” (approximately 20 minutes long) cocaine produces, the user then experiences a “crash” (period of depression). This causes the users to seek more cocaine to relieve their depression and results in addiction.
Negative effects of cocaine include:
- movement problems
- anxiety
- insomnia
- depression
- hallucinations
- death
One of the effects of cocaine that often has serious consequences is a large increase in the user’s blood pressure and may result in bleeding within the brain. Constriction of brain blood vessels can also cause a stroke.
What are the Short Term Effects of Cocaine?
The short-term effects of cocaine will be noticed right away. For some, they can cause serious bodily damage while for others they may lead to death. Cocaine-related deaths are often a result of cardiac arrest or seizures followed by respiratory arrest. Increased energy, decreased appetite, and increased heart rate and blood pressure are some short-term effects that will be noticed by most first time cocaine users.
- Increased temperature
- Dilated pupils
- Constricted vessels
- Increased blood pressure
- Mental alertness
- Increased energy
- Decreased appetite
- Increased heart rate
What are the Long Term Effects of Cocaine?
- Addiction
- Paranoia
- Irritability
- Restlessness
- Auditory Hallucinations
- Mood Disturbances
Many cocaine addicts develop a high tolerance for the drug. They will take extremely large amounts of the drug in an attempt to experience the euphoria of their first “high” once more. Sadly, the reality of drug addiction is that this first “high” will never be felt again and some addicts chase it for years causing them to lose everything.
Recent studies have shown that during periods of abstinence from cocaine use, the memory of the euphoria or mere exposure to cues associated with cocaine use can trigger tremendous craving and relapse. This can happen even after long periods of abstinence.
The Effects of Cocaine on the Brain
These two images of the brain are positron emission tomography (PET) scans of a normal person (picture on the left) and of a person on cocaine (picture on the right). The PET scan shows brain function by seeing how the brain uses glucose, the energy source for neurons. In these scans, the red color shows high use of glucose, yellow shows medium use and blue shows the least use of glucose. Notice that many areas of the brain of the cocaine user do not use glucose as effectively as the brain of the normal person. This can be observed by the lower amounts of red in the right PET scan.
A great amount of research has been devoted to understanding the way cocaine produces its pleasurable effects, and the reasons it is so addictive. One mechanism is through its effects on structures deep in the brain. Scientists have discovered regions within the brain that, when stimulated, produce feelings of pleasure. One neural system that appears to be most affected by cocaine originates in a region, located deep within the brain, called the ventral tegmental area (VTA). Nerve cells originating in the VTA extend to the region of the brain known as the nucleus accumbens, one of the brain's key pleasure centers. In studies using animals, for example, all types of pleasurable stimuli, such as food, water, sex, and many drugs of abuse, cause increased activity in the nucleus accumbens.
Cocaine in the brain - In the normal communication process, dopamine is released by a neuron into the synapse, where it can bind with dopamine receptors on neighboring neurons. Normally dopamine is then recycled back into the transmitting neuron by a specialized protein called the dopamine transporter. If cocaine is present, it attaches to the dopamine transporter and blocks the normal recycling process, resulting in a buildup of dopamine in the synapse which contributes to the pleasurable effects of cocaine.
Researchers have discovered that, when a pleasurable event is occurring, it is accompanied by a large increase in the amounts of dopamine released in the nucleus accumbens by neurons originating in the VTA. In the normal communication process, dopamine is released by a neuron into the synapse (the small gap between two neurons), where it binds with specialized proteins (called dopamine receptors) on the neighboring neuron, thereby sending a signal to that neuron. Drugs of abuse are able to interfere with this normal communication process. For example, scientists have discovered that cocaine blocks the removal of dopamine from the synapse, resulting in an accumulation of dopamine. This buildup of dopamine causes continuous stimulation of receiving neurons, probably resulting in the euphoria commonly reported by cocaine abusers.
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