Crack Addiction Symptoms

Common health effects

Physical effects of crack cocaine use include constricted blood vessels, dilated pupils, and increased temperature, heart rate, and blood pressure. The duration of crack cocaine’s immediate euphoric effects, which include hyper stimulation, reduced fatigue, and mental clarity, depends on the route of administration. On the other hand, the faster the absorption, the shorter the duration of action. The high from snorting may last 15 to 30 minutes, while that from smoking may last 5 to 10 minutes. Increased use can reduce the period of time a user feels high and increases the risk of addiction.

Some users of crack cocaine report feelings of restlessness, irritability, and anxiety. A tolerance to the “high” may develop—many addicts report that they seek but fail to achieve as much pleasure as they did from their first exposure. Some users will increase their doses to intensify and prolong the euphoric effects. While tolerance to the high can occur, users can also become more sensitive to crack cocaine’s anaesthetic and convulsing effects without increasing the dose taken. This increased sensitivity may explain some deaths occurring after apparently low doses of crack cocaine.

Use of crack in a binge

Use of crack cocaine in a binge, during which the drug is taken repeatedly and at increasingly high doses, may lead to a state of increasing irritability, restlessness, and paranoia. Crack cocaine use can result in a period of full-blown paranoid psychosis, in which the user loses touch with reality and experiences auditory hallucinations.

Other complications from crack cocaine use

Other complications associated with crack cocaine use include disturbances in hearth rhythm and heart attacks, chest pain and respiratory failure, strokes, seizures and headaches, and gastrointestinal complications such as abdominal pain and nausea. Because crack cocaine has a tendency to decrease appetite, many chronic users can become malnourished. Different means of taking cocaine can produce different adverse effects. Regularly smoking of crack cocaine, for example, can lead to hoarseness, chronic coughing and lung cancer. Ingesting cocaine can cause severe bowel gangrene due to reduced blood flow.

Regardless of how cocaine is used or how frequently, a user can experience acute cardiovascular or cerebrovascular emergencies, such as a heart attack or stroke, which could result in sudden death. Cocaine-related deaths are often a result of cardiac arrest or seizure followed by respiratory arrest.