title: [Addiction to cocaine and other stimulants].
abstract: Due to many available forms (powder, pasta base, freebase and crack…) and because of multiple routes of administration (intranasal, intravenous, or smoked), cocaine has become in 30 years one of the most consumed illegal drugs worldwide, after cannabis. While the frequency of consumption decreases in North America, it continues to rise in Europe, and in some countries in South America, including Brazil, despite a growing knowledge of its specific effects, physical complications and psychiatric consequences. Elsewhere (notably in Asia and Indian Ocean), amphetamine and other stimulants (including methamphetamine), whose properties and patterns of use are very similar to those of cocaine, tend to replace it. Another amphetamine derivative, MDMA or ecstasy, is also consumed by many young people of less than 25 years, in Europe and North America, in a festive setting, with specific consequences and special procedures of care. Although there is currently no consensus for a specific medication, the most appropriate therapeutic approach seems to involve a psychosocial treatment associated with an anticraving medication, which will reduce compulsive desire to consume, in order to facilitate the psychotherapeutic and social care. However, pharmacological research remains very active, and many options are explored (GABAergic or dopaminergic agonists, amphetamine derivatives with long half-life, vaccine…), whether to treat addiction to cocaine or to methamphetamine.
authors.affiliation: CHU de la Martinique, service de psychiatrie et psychologie médicale, addictologie et psychotraumatologie, 97261 Fort-de-France cedex, Martinique. jerome.lacoste@chu-fortdefrance.fr
authors.forename: Jérôme
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Lacoste
authors.forename: Héloïse
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Delavenne-Garcia
authors.forename: Aimé
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Charles-Nicolas
authors.forename: Frederico
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Duarte Garcia
authors.forename: Louis
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Jehel
mesh_terms: D019969:Amphetamine-Related Disorders / Q000188:drug therapy / Q000628:therapy; D016739:Behavior, Addictive; D003042:Cocaine / Q000008:administration & dosage / Q000009:adverse effects*; D019970:Cocaine-Related Disorders / Q000188:drug therapy / Q000523:psychology / Q000628:therapy*; D006801:Humans; D013287:Illicit Drugs / Q000009:adverse effects*
chemical_list: D013287:Illicit Drugs; D003042:Cocaine