Cocaine usage

Fudala P., Johnson R., Jaffe J. Outpatient comparison of buprenorphine and methadone maintenance. II. Effects of cocaine usage, retention time in study and missed clinical visits. In Harrison L., Ed. Problems of Drug Dependence. Natl. Inst. Mental Health Res. Monogr. 105 587, 1991. 

I. Mitchell. Alcohol, cannabis and cocaine usage in patients with trauma... 

The presence of cocaine or benzoylecgonine in blood, urine, hair, or other tissues is indicative of cocaine usage. No other known substance can give rise to a false positive, and there are no legitimate excuses to account for a positive result. There are many reports of hospitalized infants and children with positive urine test results indicative of exposure to cocaine. The most likely route of exposure was secondhand smoke in homes where crack cocaine was used. 

Pharmacological treatments were used by nearly half of the 149 services which offered any treatment, with a wide range of medications directed at various features of cocaine usage. Fluoxetine and desipramine were the most frequently prescribed antidepressants, with benzodiazepines used to aid sleep and reduce distress in withdrawal states. Sedative antipsychotics were used, apparently in states of severe agitation as well as more directly for psychotic complications. 

Indirect sympathomimetics (B) are agents that elevate the concentration of NE at neuroeffector junctions, because they either inhibit re-uptake (cocaine), facilitate release, or slow breakdown by MAO, or exert all three of these effects amphetamine, metham-phetamine). The effectiveness of such indirect sympathomimetics diminishes or disappears (tachyphylaxis) when ve-Ltillmann, Color Atlas of Pharmacology 2000 Thieme All rights reserved. Usage subject to terms and conditions of license. 

Usage In hydrochloride form it may be either ingested or snuffed. Dose 15-50 mg (amount size of 1 line of cocaine equals 10 mg). 

Although the synaptic dopamine levels are elevated following the acute drug use in non-dependent subjects, there is also an indication that there is decreased dopamine responsiveness in human cocaine abusers (Volkow et al., 1997). Such reductions in dopamine might contribute to the continued drug-usage in an effort to reestablish normal dopamine levels. 

Indirect sympathomimetics (B) in the narrow sense comprise amphetamine-like substances and cocaine. Cocaine blocks the norepinephrine transporter (NAT), besides acting as a local anesthetic. Amphetamine is taken up into varicosities via NAT, and from there into storage vesicles (via the vesicular monoamine transporter), where it displaces NE into the cytosol. In addition, amphetamine blocks MAO, allowing cytosolic NE concentration to rise unimpeded. This induces the plasmalemmal NAT to transport Luellmann, Color Atlas of Pharmacology All rights reserved. Usage subject to terms... 

Cocaine and morphine are two very well known alkaloids. Cocaine is a compound extracted from the leaves of the coca plant. Long term usage of cocaine causes addiction and harms the central nervous system. 

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