If cocaine is like ritalin and caffeine, only stronger, and ritalin and caffeine can be used to treat ADD and ADHD...Could cocaine theoretically be used as ADD/ADHD medication?
I'll stress this question is asked purely out of curiosity.
2007-11-17 22:34:39 · 8 answers · asked by Pango 5 in Science & Mathematics ➔ Medicine
probably not a good one. You only feel up from cocaine about 15-20 minutes depending on how much take. If you wanted to use it as a medicine you would have to take a lot.
2007-11-17 22:40:23 · answer #1 · answered by andy g 4 · 1⤊ 0⤋
No.
Cocaine causes a flood of dopamine in the brain and causes the parts of the brain that respond to reward to go berko. That's why it's so addictive.
Your brain thinks it's great, even better than you do. So it seeks out more, just as the brain instructs your body to seek out sex or food because it perceives it to be so good. Whether it is or not is not important to cocaine.
It is looking like the dopamine flood, (which by the way occurs also with ecstasy too) may deplete stores or by some other mechanism (still being worked on) cause Parkinson's Disease later in life.
So you'd just be substituting one problem for another, and there are doubts that it would have any effect on ADHD / ADD anyway.
2007-11-17 22:43:06 · answer #2 · answered by Menthoids 6 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Why in the world would you even go to that extreme instead of finding a way to get him treated by a psychiatrist. The state would help pay for it. If hes even been diagnosed with adhd, this should have already been done. It starts with the teachers evaluating him for special ed and zeroing in on what the problem is. Then you go to your local mental health agency, get him assessed for treatment to get counseling and psychiatrist visits. The psychiatrist will prescribe the medicine. If you buy cocaine, have it in your possession and give it to your kid, you will have your kid took from you and go to prison. I think you must be a troll! Use some common sense. And how would you even know how much to give him? I dont understand your thinking.
2016-05-24 01:49:13 · answer #3 · answered by darlene 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Just to set the record straight, cocaine does NOT act like ritalin (methylphenidate) or caffeine. Ritalin actually is much more like amphetamine, and acts by reversing the dopamine transporter. Caffeine has many pharmacological actions, but the main one is to inhibit phosphodiesterase. Cocaine does not inhibit phosphodiesterase, nor does it reverse the dopamine transporter. It does, however, inhibit the dopamine transporter as well as inhibiting the transport of norepinephrine and serotonin. The answer to you question, is NO, it can NOT theoretically be used in ADD/ADHD.
2007-11-18 00:13:34 · answer #4 · answered by Simonizer1218 7 · 0⤊ 1⤋
Theoretically, yes since cocaine is a powerful stimulant that has similar effects as caffeine and the stimulant ADHD meds. Cocaine, on the otherhand, effects many more areas of the body than those mentioned above and would not work well as it would easily get out of control and have many, many side effects over the long term.
2007-11-17 22:59:29 · answer #5 · answered by MHnurseC 6 · 1⤊ 1⤋
what an expensive treatment...... I know cocaine used to be used to treat asthma.... and according to wili, is still used as a topical anesthetic, even in children, specifically in eye, nose and throat surgery
2007-11-17 22:44:35 · answer #6 · answered by Miss Rhonda 7 · 2⤊ 1⤋
AMPHETAMINE is a much better choice. But strictly to an older persons or above 40 years old.
2007-11-17 22:55:46 · answer #7 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 1⤋
no
2007-11-17 22:42:15 · answer #8 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 1⤋