Medical News Strokes may be associated with cocaine and amphetamine abuse | Strokes may be associated with cocaine and amphetamine abuse |
|
| Written by NetDoc.com Medical News Feed | |||
|
The use of stimulant drugs, including cocaine and amphetamines, may be linked to a higher risk for stroke, according to a report in the April issue of Archives of General Psychiatry, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.
Discuss this article on the forums. (0 posts)
Arthur N. Westover, M.D., of The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas, and colleagues used a database of 3,148,165 discharges from Texas hospitals between 2000 and 2003 to assess the connection between drug use and strokes. Strokes and drug dependence or abuse were identified by clinical codes. In the four-year period, there were 8,369 strokes: 1,887 in 2000, 2,097 in 2001, 2,133 in 2002 and 2,252 in 2003. Cocaine was the second most frequently abused drug after alcohol, and amphetamines were the fifth; abuse of both, as well as cannabis and opioids, increased significantly. In 2003—the only year that codes identified the difference between hemorrhagic (bleeding within the brain) and ischemic (blocked blood flow to the brain) strokes—amphetamine abuse was associated with a five-fold greater risk of hemorrhagic stroke but not ischemic stroke. Cocaine abuse was associated with more than double the risk of both hemorrhagic and ischemic stroke. “Amphetamine, but not cocaine, abuse was associated with a higher risk of death after hemorrhagic stroke,” the authors continue.
“The public health implications of these findings are heightened by growing news accounts suggesting a recent increase in methamphetamine abuse, particularly in the southwestern, western and Midwestern states,” they conclude. “This concern was supported by our finding that, among hospitalized patients in Texas from 2000 to 2003, the rate of amphetamine abuse was increasing faster than that of any other drug, including cocaine, and the rate of strokes among amphetamine abusers was increasing faster than the rate of strokes among abusers of any other drug.”
Editor's Note: This study was supported in part by a grant from the National Institute of Mental Health. Please see the article for additional information, including other authors, author contributions and affiliations, financial disclosures, funding and support, etc. |
|||
| < Prev | Next > |
|---|
NetDoc Physician Specialty Pages
Common Diseases
Diabetes - disease and management information, including diagnosis, typical treatment plans and diabetes supplies.
Medical Careers
The US medical jobs market has stayed hot for health care providers. Whether you believe that a provider shortage is in the offing or that the ratio of physicians-to-patients is too high, physician jobs and nursing jobs abound.
A wide variety of medical jobs can be found in the netdoc health care job listings. Particular strengths include permanent and locum tenens physician jobs, nursing jobs across the US, and radiology positions.
Other resources include physician salary information, medical career guidance, and the ability to post physician jobs.
Medical Specialties
For specialty salary and job information, see medical specialty pages like cardiology, OB/Gyn, and internal medicine specialty pages. Practice tools, like Psychiatry EMR and software for other specialties are available through individual specialty pages.
Medical dictionary
Derived from one of the largest public databases of healthcare information, the netdoc medical dictionary has over 40,000 terms. A few examples
Meropenum (AKA Meropenem) is a broad spectrum carbapenem with antibacterial properties, synthetic meropenem inhibits cell wall synthesis in gram-positive and gram-negative bacteria...
Azaserine is a naturally occurring serine derivative diazo compound with antineoplastic properties...
Metformin is a biguanide with antihyperglycemic activity. Metformin hydrochloride exerts its action by improving hepatic sensitivity to insulin...