Cocaine Abuse: Clinical Aspects

Abstract

The cocaine epidemic which started in the USA in the 1970s has become a pandemic. Cocaine is at present snorted among affluent people in the capitals in the Nordic countries. In this paper clinical signs and symptoms following cocaine abuse are presented. Psychiatric symptoms from anxiety states to paranoid psychoses may follow the abuse. The symptoms mimic traditional mental disorders An overview of treatment aspects is given. The clinician may have to handle cases of cocaine overdose among experimental users. The cocaine abusers may need detoxification from cocaine and from secondary polydrug abuse. Long-term outpatient treatment programs seem to be necessary to help the cocaine abusers abstain and avoid dramatic relapses.

Key Words:

• Clinical manifestations
• Cocaine abuse
• Overdose
• Treatment