I never meant to imply cocaine assuredly causes permanent brain damage from a single use. I just find your "Psychogenic" explanation of clinical symptoms rather dismissive.
Of course it's dangerous. I'm not arguing that. What I am arguing against is permanent brain damage from a single use.
One use or a hundred uses, double blind studies will not change the fact cocaine abuse is very dangerous. I don't denie damaging effects in some cocaine users could be due to adulterants, individual susceptibility, underlying health conditions, a prior history of drug abuse, etc.
OP, how do you feel about starting with the EGCG and 5-HTP I mentioned?
"Severe headaches have been associated with cocaine use and they may provide a diagnostic dilemma. Early severe headaches occur in 50% of patients with cocaine related stroke, and 18% of these have seizures. Cases have been reported of migraine-like headaches attributable to the after effects of cocaine bingeing. These headaches subsided immediately with the readministration of cocaine, but were sufficiently aversive to motivate quitting the use of the drug. The authors highlighted the effects of cocaine in first increasing and then decreasing the levels of serotonin, a potent vasoactive neurotransmitter. The resolution of the headache with further cocaine was consistent with the rapid response of migraine to serotonin enhancing agents like ergot."
"Cocaine, in various forms, has been reported to contain a plethora of adulterants. These include local anaesthetics such as lidocaine, sugars, stimulants such as amphetamine, toxins such as strychnine and quinine, and inert compounds such as talc and cornstarch. All of these, especially the toxins and stimulants, may have multiple side-effects of their own, many of them possibly lethal."
https://ispub.com/IJEM/2/1/7862
Yes the cocaine metabolite Benzoylecgonine has a half-life around 6 hours.
It might be possible solely because Cocaine and Amphetamine do increase the risk of a stroke within 24 hours.
Of course it's dangerous. I'm not arguing that. What I am arguing against is permanent brain damage from a single use.
One use or a hundred uses, double blind studies will not change the fact cocaine abuse is very dangerous. I don't denie damaging effects in some cocaine users could be due to adulterants, individual susceptibility, underlying health conditions, a prior history of drug abuse, etc.
OP, how do you feel about starting with the EGCG and 5-HTP I mentioned?
A stroke or silent stroke could freely occur in this case.
and as mentioned before, cocaine causes a strong vasoconstriction that lasts longer than 45 min so some Brain cells do defineately die, though not so many i.e. no noticable brain damage.
"Cocaine and its metabolites do undoubtedly have major effects on cerebral (and other) arteries. The acute vasospasm has been demonstrated in animals, and by magnetic resonance angiography (MRA) and transcranial Doppler in human volunteers, and occurs in large and medium sized arteries, probably mediated by endothelin 1. In patients, angiography may show beading and focal stenosis, and there may also be associated large vessel occlusion. Such abnormalities may arise through vasospasm caused by the drug itself but the possibility of additional subarachnoid haemorrhage needs excluding. Postmortem specimens in a few patients have shown that arteries may sustain damage to the media and elastic lamina, but no abnormality has been detectable in most studies and in some patients no vasculopathy can be demonstrated (other than aneurysms and AVMs in cases with intracranial haemorrhage)."
"In half the cases of cocaine infarcts, angiography is unremarkable and does not show the above abnormalities. Occasionally intraluminal clot is seen in the internal carotid artery, perhaps possibly because of “stasis” distant to extracranial carotid artery spasm. Artery-to-artery embolism is therefore another possible mechanism for vessel occlusion, in addition to spasm, in situ thrombosis, and embolism from the heart."
http://jnnp.bmj.com/...ppl_3/iii9.full
Cocaine-induced cerebral vasoconstriction detected in humans with magnetic resonance angiography.
http://jama.jamanetw...REF-JCI71030-33
Edited by Metagene, 13 May 2015 - 06:50 PM.