Sunday, January 4, 2015

Cocaine: Psychiatric Disorders And How To Recover


Cocaine is a powerful stimulant that is highly addictive. It is derived from coca leaves. When taken, it causes various effects such as increased alertness, energy, short term euphoria and talkativeness. During a comedown, the drug is known to cause feelings of paranoia, anxiety and restlessness to a user. When the usage of the drug is excessive, the effects include; convulsions, tremors and increased blood pressure and heart rate which might cause cardiac arrest that may lead to death.

Psychiatric Disorders

The fore mentioned effects can result to cocaine- related psychiatric disorders which are 10 in number namely; cocaine intoxication, cocaine-induced sexual dysfunction, cocaine intoxication delirium, cocaine-induced sleep disorder, cocaine-induced psychotic disorder with delusions, cocaine-induced psychotic disorder with hallucinations, cocaine withdrawal, cocaine-induced anxiety disorder, cocaine-induced mood disorder and cocaine-related disorder not otherwise  specified.

All these disorders have unique symptoms and effect on mental health of a person. Therefore the recovery program for each of the disorder is distinctive. Below is a characteristic of each of the disorders;

Intoxication

Cocaine intoxication results when an individual has used the stimulant recently and has clear signs of unusual behavioral changes as mentioned above. When a person experiences extreme thought impairment, then this is cocaine intoxication delirium. As the name suggests, cocaine induced sexual dysfunction results to a person being distressed/disrupted when it comes to sex.

Withdrawal From Cocaine

As for cocaine withdrawal, this occurs after one stops the usage of this drug. The symptoms include; abnormal fatigue, depression, suicidal thoughts, insomnia among other effects.  For the sleep disorder, an individual will have disrupted sleeping patterns. When it comes to the induced psychotic disorder with hallucinations and with delusions, a person experiences that which is not reality.

Anxiety

The anxiety disorder causes one to be extremely anxious and cocaine induced mood condition causes change of mood every now and then. Lastly all cocaine-related psychiatric disorders not elsewhere classified fall under disorders not otherwise specified.

How To Recover

When it comes to recovery, the treatment modes will combine the use of sedative drugs, outpatient and inpatient psychiatric treatment, close observations by a doctor among other measures. There is usually a high chance of relapse with this drug. For this reason there is need for the addict to join a long term 12 step self help group as well as a therapist conducting periodic psychiatric evaluation on the patient.

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