Additionally, articles published within Cureus should not be deemed a suitable substitute for the advice of a qualified health care professional. Do not disregard or avoid professional medical advice due to content published within Cureus. To help you find the most appropriate path, we offer a free, no-obligation addiction assessment. This allows us to understand …
Additionally, articles published within Cureus should not be deemed a suitable substitute for the advice of a qualified health care professional. Do not disregard or avoid professional medical advice due to content published within Cureus. To help you find the most appropriate path, we offer a free, no-obligation addiction assessment. This allows us to understand your situation and recommend the treatment that’s right for you.
- Individuals who use stimulants like cocaine commonly use other substances, often alcohol.
- While no safe threshold exists for combining these substances, spacing them apart and reducing overall consumption can mitigate some risks.
- Although it was long believed that cocaine was metabolized into benzoylecgonine via hCE1 and into ecgonine methyl ester via hCE2, this has come under question 17.
- Using cocaine and alcohol together significantly increases the risk of an overdose.
Even one night of mixing can result in sudden death, especially when combined with other substances or underlying health conditions. If people want to stop taking cocaine and alcohol, it is best to undergo a detox with medical supervision. This co-use increases the harmful effects of cocaine as well as the risk of drug dependence and addiction. When people mix cocaine and alcohol, cocaethylene can stay around for days to even weeks in the body.
Cocaethylene Withdrawal
The longer half-life of cocaethylene means that its measurable presence in the blood indicates that the person had used cocaine, even if cocaine is no longer detectable 3. Dopamine is a reinforcing substance that plays a key role in the effects of many drugs of abuse, including cocaine and alcohol 21. Independent of the route of administration, the initial effect of cocaine on the body is a rapid build-up of dopamine 22. Dopamine originates in the dopaminergic cells of the brain and circulates throughout the body 22.
Mixing cocaine and alcohol can increase your risk for:
Cessation of alcohol and cocaine use may need to begin with detoxification. Alcohol withdrawal can be dangerous and potentially fatal, so medically managed detox is often essential. In contrast, withdrawal from cocaine, while often extremely uncomfortable, is not life-threatening. Combining alcohol and cocaine causes the liver to form a metabolite known as cocaethylene. Cocaethylene is equal in potency to cocaine, producing similar sensations of energy, focus, and excitement, but the effects are longer lasting.
The Big Night Out — & The Even Bigger Risk Of Mixing Alcohol & Cocaine
However, no strategy eliminates risks entirely; the safest approach is abstaining from combining the two. For those in social settings, alternating non-alcoholic beverages with water can dilute alcohol’s impact while providing hydration. Taking cocaine and alcohol together produces far more dangerous side effects than taking just one or the other. According to the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction (EMCDDA), 23% of people receiving treatment for powder cocaine addiction in 2017 were also receiving treatment for alcohol use disorder. Ethanol decreased the amount of benzoylecgonine excreted in the urine by 48%.
Cocaethylene: When Cocaine and Alcohol Are Taken Together
- In this context, it is important to remember that the neural circuits affected by cocaine are considered fundamental biological pathways essential for survival 22.
- This metabolite, cocaethylene, is considered more toxic to the cardiovascular and hepatic systems than cocaine, the parent drug, and it has a longer plasma elimination half-life (about 2 hours) than cocaine (about 1 hour) 3.
- It is critical to seek emergency medical help immediately if someone is suffering from a suspected cocaine or alcohol overdose.
- However, no strategy eliminates risks entirely; the safest approach is abstaining from combining the two.
They can vary depending on how much of the drug you’ve taken, and differ from person-to-person. Managing a comedown can be difficult and many people get the urge to take more drugs to get rid of the symptoms, although this can spiral into an addiction as your body then starts relying on drugs to function. Alcohol hangovers are primarily characterized by a headache and feeling unwell. A cocaine hangover, commonly known as a cocaine comedown, is characterized by intense fatigue. Cocaine overstimulates your body, giving you abnormally increased energy. When its effects are gone, it leaves you feeling very tired because you have spent a lot of extra energy and no longer feel the additional stimulation.
Mixing cocaine and alcohol has been linked to a greater risk of suicidal tendencies. Prolonged use can also take a toll on your long-term physical health, which can be fatal. The effects of a cocaine comedown and alcohol withdrawal make it particularly dangerous to use one substance while withdrawing from the other. If you are coming down off of cocaine, using alcohol will make you even more tired and exhausted.
It’s the compulsive use of a drug despite negative consequences, whether they’re social, financial, legal, etc. Such information, when available from the patient or others, may be helpful for the emergency team 47.
The mixture can lead to severe health complications, including increased heart rate, high blood pressure, and a greater risk of sudden death. Cocaine intoxication is frequently seen in emergency departments, but clinicians may treat cocaine-induced arrhythmias, myocardial infarction, or other adverse events and not ask about the concurrent use of cocaine and ethanol. A patient who admits to using cocaine but fails to mention alcohol consumption at the same time may be experiencing cocaine-like psychoactive effects long after the clinician would assume they had dissipated. Clinicians treating cocaine toxicity may find that the half-life of cocaine is approximately doubled when ethanol is used at the same time. Even if a patient is forthcoming about the quantity and timing of taking cocaine, the effects of the drug may be significantly prolonged when alcohol is involved. Clinicians treating patients with acute or chronic cocaine exposure should ask about alcohol consumption to get a more realistic assessment of their risk.
The dangers of mixing cocaine and alcohol
Comparatively, the dangers of cocaethylene formation overshadow the risks of cocaine or alcohol alone. While cocaine’s cardiovascular risks are well-documented, adding alcohol increases the likelihood of sudden death by 20–25%. This synergy highlights why emergency departments often treat combined intoxication more aggressively than isolated cases. Education on these interactions is vital, especially for younger adults (18–25), who are more likely to experiment with polydrug use without understanding the consequences. Central to the psychoactive effects of cocaine is the nucleus accumbens (NA) region of the brain, a major part of the ventral striatum that helps to mediate emotions, motivation, reward, and pleasure.
In a study of mice, the long-term exposure of animals to ethanol and cocaine induced pathological changes in the brain and neurodegeneration 38. These high cost risks are due to increased toxicity in the heart, liver and other organs that cocaethylene produces. Mixing cocaine and alcohol can produce a variety of effects sought after by those that abuse drugs. Not all of the effects produced are pleasant, some can be very dangerous, terrifying, and even life-threatening. The Recovery Village Columbus offers comprehensive addiction treatment for drug and alcohol addictions and co-occurring mental health conditions. Concurrently using alcohol and cocaine can cause many adverse neurological and physical side-effects, including a steep increase in overdose risk.
Cocaine dependence develops when there’s a change in the brain’s reward system from constant release of dopamine. After a while, you need more of the drug to get the same desired feelings and to avoid withdrawal. People who use cocaine and alcohol are also more likely to have injuries or adverse reactions and visit emergency rooms more often.
That increases the risk of stroke and heart-related reactions for days to weeks. The short-term risks of cocaine and alcohol show that, even if the substances are taken recreationally, they can harm your body and your mood fairly quickly. They can also take a toll on your mental health, which is often felt during the ‘comedown’, in the days after consuming cocaine and alcohol. Sometimes, people combine alcohol and cocaine to purposely create cocaethylene.
Whether you’re seeking help for yourself or a loved one, we’re here to guide you every step of the way. Start your recovery journey with peace of mind, knowing your care is Cocaine and Alcohol Mix covered. Combining alcohol use with cocaine can have many negative neurological impacts, such as diminished memory, lower IQ scores, and decreased verbal learning capabilities.
