Cocaine, ethanol, cannabis and benzodiazepines co-consumption among patients assisted at the emergency room

Abstract

Introduction

Cocaine and ethanol (EtOH) co-consumption is a risk factor for physiologically and clinically negative outcomes. We describe the occurrence of cocaine consumption alone or co-consumption with EtOH and others psychotropics.

Patients and methods

The descriptive research used data on medical records of patients positive to cocaine test who attended an emergency room between 2016 and 2017. We determined the frequency of cocaine consumption alone and co-consumption with EtOH, cannabis or benzodiazepines (BZDs).

Results

Over one year period, 88 patients (13.3%) were positive to cocaine test, mainly attended on weekends, in holiday months, young adults or men. Among those positive for cocaine, 72% were also positive for EtOH, cannabis or BZD. Cocaine co-consumption with one or two out of three substance was 55.2% (CI95%; 44.7-65.8%) and 16.4% (CI95%;8.58-24.3%), respectively. Co-consumption was more frecuently wih EtOH, followed by cannabis or BZD. 

Conclusion

Co-consumption of cocaine with EtOH is very common and could be associated with acute or chronic consumption of cannabis or acute exposure to BZDs. It is important that emergency physicians use a systematic approach to diagnose and treat more than one psychotropic substance in cocaine positive patients.

Keywords:

• cocaine
• ethanol
• emergency room
• cannabis
• co-consumption
• psychotropic substance

Supplementary material

Table S1 Frequency of visits to emergency room (ER), toxicological screening, and positive to cocaine during the period of research

Acknowledgments

The authors are grateful to the Clínica del Occidente S.A., and to Dra. Katalina Castañeda and Dr. Julio Acosta for partial support in data collection.

Disclosure

The authors report no conflicts of interest related to this work.