Last January, a study by the French Drug Observatory and Addictive Trends revealed that cocaine consumption had reached record levels in France in 2023, with 1.1 million consumers in the year. A figure that has continued to increase in recent years and that worries Dr Antoine PetitCollin, toxicologist at the Tarbes hospital center. In an interview with The dispatchthe specialist recalls the edifying results of a study published in 2016: cocaine consumption multiplies by seven the risk of a stroke (stroke) ischemic within 24 hours of taking.
A much higher risk than that of other known factors
A vascular accident occurs when blood circulation is brutally interrupted in a brain vessel. This leads to a sudden loss of one or more brain functions, due to a localized lesion. Certain factors such as age, diabetes or even high blood pressure are known to promote the occurrence of a stroke. Consumption of cocaine, in addition to its powerful addictive power, could also increase the risk of stroke, and more significantly than the risk factors of known stroke.
Scientist Yu-Christ Cheng, assistant medicine professor at the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Maryland, sought to understand the factors contributing to the risk of stroke among young adults. For this, he and his team were interested in 1,101 people who were victims of a stroke between 1991 and 2008, and aged 15 to 49. They compared their health data and their drug use habits to those of 1,154 people of the same age, from the general population. More than a quarter of the people of the two groups have declared a history of cocaine consumption. Men who consume cocaine were twice as many as women.
After analysis of the data, the researchers found that acute cocaine consumption declared within 24 hours preceding the stroke was strongly associated with an increased risk of stroke, regardless of ethnic origin. More precisely, the participants were 6 to 7 times more likely to undergo an ischemic stroke within 24 hours of the consumption of cocaine. “”We have found that the risk of stroke associated with acute cocaine consumption is much higher than that of other risk factors, such as diabetes, high blood pressure and smoking “, said the study authors in a statement.
Towards a systematic drug detection for young stroke victims?
Cocaine is dangerous for health because it can quickly make addicted. But this study shows that it can also be the cause of disability or death by vascular accident. “”With a few exceptions, we believe that each young patient victim of a stroke (stroke) should be the subject of drug detection as soon as he was admitted to the hospital “suggests Yu-Christ Cheng. The latter reports that among the participants in the study having been victims of a stroke, only a third were subject to toxicological screening during their hospitalization.