Chronic cocaine exposure affects many other areas of the brain too. For example, animal research indicates that cocaine diminishes functioning in the orbitofrontal cortex (OFC), which appears to underlie the poor decision-making, inability to adapt to negative consequences of drug use, and lack of self-insight shown by people addicted to cocaine.12 A study using optogenetic technology, which uses light to activate specific, genetically-modified neurons, found that stimulating the OFC restores adaptive learning in animals. This intriguing result suggests that strengthening OFC activity may be a good therapeutic approach to improve insight and awareness of the consequences of drug use among people addicted to cocaine.13
Both cocaine and crack cocaine can cause brain damage, even when used only a few times. Damage to brain structures can trigger addiction, which is a disease involving the reward circuits and dopamine systems. Abusing this potent drug can cause other kinds of long-term damage as well.
How Does Cocaine Affect the Brain
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Cocaine increases stress hormones like cortisol in the brain, which can in turn raise blood pressure permanently, damaging the cardiovascular system. Even if the person does not develop psychosis or paranoia, they could develop anxiety, panic disorders, or problems with aggression or violence.
One of the most serious long-term effects from cocaine abuse is damage to the cardiovascular system. This can lead to damage to many other organ systems, including the brain. A few ways cocaine damages the structure of the brain are outlined below:1
As a person grows older, their brain will naturally change and begin to lose gray matter. In a healthy brain, this is a decades-long process, and it does not appear until a person has reached older adulthood. Memory problems, changes in cognitive ability, and even dementia are linked to reduction of gray matter.
A recent study through the University of Cambridge examined the aging of the brain in people who abused cocaine and those who had no previous history of substance abuse. The group found that the average brain normally loses 1.69 milliliters of gray matter per year; however, people who had abused cocaine in the past, or who were currently cocaine-dependent, doubled the rate of gray matter loss, for an average of 3.08 milliliters per year.2
Another study, conducted by Johns Hopkins University, found that cocaine may cause brain cells to cannibalize themselves.3 The study describes cocaine triggering autophagy in neurons in mice, or the process of the cells eating themselves from the inside out. The cells threw out useful resources during metabolism, leading to a stress reaction of cannibalizing other internal cell structures. Mice whose mothers had been fed cocaine during pregnancy, but who were not cocaine-dependent themselves, also showed this phenomenon.
Cocaine is a powerful, highly-addictive stimulant. It is an illegal drug responsible for numerous addictions every year. No amount of cocaine use is safe. Even a few uses of cocaine or crack cocaine can damage the brain. Cocaine abuse and addiction can also damage the body physically as well. Cocaine recovery and the brain may feel like a complicated topic. But supporting a loved one who is struggling with cocaine addiction should be informed by how cocaine abuse affects the brain.
Brain damage after cocaine use is largely related to how it affects the chemical processes in the brain. Taking cocaine causes the brain to release enormous amounts of dopamine. Dopamine is a brain chemical that regulates pleasure and positive emotions. The role it plays in mood and mental health is essential.
Damage to the cardiovascular system also leaves people more predisposed to experiencing blood clots. Research also points to cocaine interrupting the normal functioning of brain neurons, either weakening them or killing them off entirely.
Cocaine recovery can be a difficult process. One of the biggest dangers is developing a mental health disorder as the brain struggles to function without the presence of cocaine. It could even necessitate dedicated mental health treatment if lingering problems are severe enough. Thankfully, full brain functioning will return over time in all but the most severe cases. How quickly recovery happens depends on factors such as how long a drug was taken, the dosage at which a drug was taken, and consistent engagement in treatment.
It also matters how detox is conducted. Medical supervision and support are highly recommended due to the severity of withdrawal symptoms that many people experience when going off cocaine. Following detox, treatment and long-term recovery from cocaine addiction are best completed at a dedicated addiction treatment facility. Brain damage after cocaine use is a real possibility. The sooner intervention is pursued, the better chance you or a loved one has to avoid permanent brain damage or the development of a mental health disorder.
We do not yet have complete answers to these questions, but we have learned a great deal. We now know that cocaine affects brain cells in a variety of ways. Some of its effects revert quickly to normal. Others persist for weeks after the drug leaves the brain. With repeated exposure to cocaine, these short- and intermediate-term effects cumulatively give rise to further effects that last for months or years and may be irreversible.
And a 2014 review suggests many of the long-term cognitive effects of cocaine use are actually connected to withdrawal from cocaine. This seemed to imply that 5 months without cocaine would restore much of what was lost in terms of brain function.
Teens who smoke or inject cocaine will typically feel this impact immediately because of its quick transmission to their brain. However, the feelings associated with snorting cocaine will come gradually, with the high lasting up to 30 minutes.
When someone uses cocaine, the brain begins releasing extra dopamine, a feel-good brain chemical responsible for the feelings of a high or euphoria. Cocaine prevents the breakdown of dopamine, leading to a buildup of large amounts of it in the brain. The sudden flood of dopamine changes how the brain and body function.
It is possible that cocaine can kill brain cells both in the short- and long-term stages of cocaine use. However, there are many other toxic effects associated with a brain on cocaine. Every time someone repeatedly exposes their brain to cocaine, there is a possibility of dangerous or even fatal side effects.
Cocaine is a powerfully addictive stimulant that directly affects the brain. Cocaine has been labeled the drug of the 1980s and '90s, because of its extensive popularity and use during this period. However, cocaine is not a new drug. In fact, it is one of the oldest known drugs. The pure chemical, cocaine hydrochloride, has been an abused substance for more than 100 years, and coca leaves, the source of cocaine, have been ingested for thousands of years.
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.
As cocaine abuse continues, tolerance often develops. This means that higher doses and more frequent use of cocaine are required for the brain to register the same level of pleasure experienced during initial use. Recent studies have shown that, during periods of abstinence from cocaine use, the memory of the euphoria associated with cocaine use, or mere exposure to cues associated with drug use, can trigger tremendous craving and relapse to drug use, even after long periods of abstinence.
Cocaine is a powerfully addictive drug. Once having tried cocaine, an individual may have difficulty predicting or controlling the extent to which he or she will continue to use the drug. Cocaine's stimulant and addictive effects are thought to be primarily a result of its ability to inhibit the reabsorption of dopamine by nerve cells. Dopamine is released as part of the brain's reward system, and is either directly or indirectly involved in the addictive properties of every major drug of abuse.
Research has revealed a potentially dangerous interaction between cocaine and alcohol. Taken in combination, the two drugs are converted by the body to cocaethylene. Cocaethylene has a longer duration of action in the brain and is more toxic than either drug alone. While more research needs to be done, it is noteworthy that the mixture of cocaine and alcohol is the most common two-drug combination that results in drug-related death.
The present study examined the effects of an acute psychoactive dose of cocaine hydrochloride (HCl) in the rat, using the brain-stem auditory evoked potential (BAEP) as an objective, quantitative measure of this substance's effects on brain and auditory electrophysiology. The animals were 8 adult Long-Evans rats (4 female, 4 male). BAEPs were recorded from skull screw electrodes during a baseline period as well as 30-90 min after cocaine HCl treatment (10 mg/kg, i.p.). Normothermia was maintained to control for possible temperature-related effects. Cocaine's effects on the BAEP were examined over a broad range of stimulus intensities (intensity profiles) and repetition rates (rate profiles). Cocaine prolonged latencies of several BAEP components at low stimulus intensities and shortened these latencies at high stimulus intensities. The average BAEP threshold was also increased by cocaine treatment. These results were not strong, but were suggestive of a recruitment type change in auditory function. Cocaine treatment had no convincing effects on the BAEP as a function of stimulus repetition rate. 2ff7e9595c
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