Cocaine Dependence

The word cocaine is seen as synonymous to the word addiction. Cocaine gives the impression of negativity to people, either emotionally or ideally. Indeed, it is a substance known to be easily abused and thus, users eventually become dependent to it and the cycle goes on and on. Like any other drugs, cocaine addiction destroys one’s life. It changes the individual in many ways, his perspectives, his motives, perception, and behaviors.

Cocaine is a powerful and extremely addictive drug. It is extracted from the leaves of coca bush. There are two primary forms of cocaine. The first one is the. It is used for snorting up the nose. The second is freebase, which is better recognized as crack cocaine.This is used for smoking. Few cocaine addicts use it. When cocaine is snorted, the cocaine powder gets inhaled up into the nose where it is readily absorbed into the bloodstream. Once cocaine reaches the brain, dopamine gets released, stimulating pleasurable feelings. Crack cocaine, known as crack, is the term for the smokable form of cocaine. Crack is the street name given to the type of cocaine that has been processed into a smokable substance. Smoking crack cocaine delivers large amounts of the drug to the lungs, giving you an immediate and intense euphoric feeling. The high is usually very strong, but does not last very long. The rocks of crack cocaine are ignited in a crack pipe and the ensuing vapors get deeply inhaled.

A person abuses the use of cocaine when he takes in the drug for pleasure purposes and in inappropriate dosage. With repetitive use, the individual becomes tolerant with the drug and then becomes dependent with it. The person seemed to be craving for the drug every now and then. Cocaine addiction is characterized as regularly craving for the drug although the negative results of cocaine to the person’s body and mind. The physical signs of cocaine abuse can vary, depending on the person. For one, cocaine acts as an appetite suppressant so cocaine abusers often aren’t hungry and end up losing considerable amounts of weight.

Getting addicted to cocaine is like submitting yourself to be controlled by the drug. They would not be interested with normal activities of life because they only focus on obtaining and taking the drug. Thus, people around these addicts are affected because they intermingle every day. Cocaine dependence often involves not only compulsive cocaine use but also a wide range of dysfunctional behaviors. This can frequently get in the way with normal functioning in the family, workplace and community. Cocaine addiction also can place people at increased threat for a wide variety of other illnesses. These illnesses can be brought on by the addiction type behaviorswhich includes poor living and health habits that often accompany the lifestyle of an addict and the toxic effects of the cocaine itself.

Medical studies have focused their attention to one drug that could have possibly treat cocaine addiction.This certain drug is called the GBR 12909, a compound tested to be used as an antidepressant. With GBR 12909, the patients’ cocaine-seeking attitudes were eliminated within two hours without affecting food-seeking behavior. Studies have shown that both GBR 12909 and cocaine slow down the action of a protein called the dopamine transporter. By inhibiting the transporter, both GBR 12909 and cocaine promote the levels of the pleasure-inducing chemical messenger dopamine outside the nerve cells, a process that increases and prolongs dopamine’s pleasurable effects. However, GBR 12909 acts more gradually and pumps up dopamine levels less than does cocaine. By attaching to the dopamine transporter, GBR 12909 also stops cocaine from binding there. GBR 12909′s chemical beauty for the transporter is 500 times that of cocaine, so it binds to the transporter and stays there for a long time. While it’s sitting on the transporter, cocaine cannot enter to the transporter, so the cocaine can no longer act to bring on euphoria. The treatment using GBR 12909 should be extended so that the medication to have time to transport the dopamine transporter levels back to where they were before the patient started taking cocaine. The breakthrough in the discovery of GBR 12909 could be a gateway to help cocaine addiction victims in dealing with the problem they are so afraid to face.

Cocaine addiction is quite a hard condition. One should seek medical attention.