Despite the fact that it is highly illegal all around the world, cocaine, also known as the “party drug” millions of people across the globe are taking on a recreational basis.
Addictive or not?
As cocaine is not as highly addictive as other hard drugs like heroin, and the user does not become physically dependent on it, people usually think that they can pick it up and drop it whenever they like and that it is not doing a great deal of harm to their body.
However, the researchers that have tested the effects of the drug have found that snorting just a single line of cocaine can physically alter the brain permanently.
In a study done by the University of East Anglia, researchers discovered that the reward part of the brain physically changes by just one single dose of cocaine. It means that future stressful events can also lead to relapse even if you previously thought that you were not ‘addicted.’
Dr. Peter McCormick, from the School of Pharmacy, said the following:
“Relapse among cocaine addicts is actually a major problem. We wanted to find out what actually causes it. We also showed that cocaine disrupts the interaction between receptors and such changes could actually increase the risk of relapse under stressful conditions. What is most important, we identify a potential mechanism for protection against such kind of relapse. Even though our study is in rodents, those same receptors have are showing to impact human stress, as well as drug addiction.”
Cocaine is a highly popular drug all around the world. A lot of young people take it under the illusion that they are not doing any harm to their body or their brain as well.
But, the findings of this study have shown the opposite. Taking cocaine even sporadically can open your brain up to a whole world of addiction problems in your life later.
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Source/Inspired: Truth Command