Cocaine Addiction

Part 1 History, use and pharmacology: the problem of cocaine abuse and addiction - a brief history of "erythroxylon coca", cocaine use and users in the United States - an overview, the cost of cocaine abuse, entering treatment, conclusions; administration, action and pharmacology of cocaine - what is cocaine?, forms of cocaine, administration and actions, purity of illicit cocaine, latency and duration of action, the neurobiology of cocaine, use of cocaine with other drugs, conclusions. Part 2 Behavioural aspects: the subjective experience, course and parameters of cocaine abuse - subjective and related effects, is cocaine addicting?, the course of addiction, tolerance, symptoms of abstinence, theoretical explanations of cocaine abuse, conclusions; characteristics and behavioural patterns of cocaine abusers - personal characteristics, variables contributing to the development of cocaine abuse, cocaine abuse and crime, usefulness of self-reports of cocaine abuse, conclusions. Part 3 Psychopathological and medical aspects: cocaine abuse, psychopathology and personality disorders - psychopathology, clinical (AXIS I) disorders, personality (AXIS II) disorders, psychopathology in cocaine abusers versus abusers of other drugs, cocaine and other substance abuse in psychiatric patients, direct psychiatric complications of cocaine abuse, effects of cocaine abuse on memory and cognition, conclusions; medical and related consequences of cocaine abuse - presentation of cocaine-related medical problems, specific systematic complications, respiratory system, gastrointestinal system, genitourinary system, obstetrical and neonatal complications, immune system, acute complications, complications of injection use of drugs, chronic complications, cocaine-related mortality, conclusions; cocaine abuse and sexual behaviour - sexual functioning, compulsive sexuality and the treatment process, cocaine and the spread of sexually transmitted diseases, conclusions. Part 4 Treatment: major nonpharmaceutical treatment modalities - the goals of treatment, the treatment process, treatment setting and modalities, psychotherapy, behavioural intervention, cognitive-behavioural interventions, other interventions, problematic behaviours during treatment, treatment problems of special populations, conclusions; pharmacological interventions in cocaine abuse treatment - strategies underlying pharmacological treatment, agents addressing dopamine depletion, agents addressing attention deficit disorders, agents addressing cocaine withdrawal and craving, cocaine antagonists (agents blocking euphoria), agents producing aversive reactions when taken with cocaine, other pharmacological agents, antiseizure medications, other agents, management of conditions associated with cocaine abuse. (Part Contents)