Cocaine Withdrawal

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Overview, Causes, & Risk Factors

Cocaine produces euphoria by causing the brain to release higher than normal amounts of dopamine, a neurotransmitter linked to excitement related to new experiences and pleasure. (A neurotransmitter is a chemical that sends signals from one nerve cell to another.) Dopamine signals the part of the brain that seems to say "do it again", and taking one dose often leads to the desire for another.

When cocaine use is stopped or when a binge ends, depression (crash) follows almost immediately. This is accompanied by a strong craving for more cocaine, fatigue, pleasurelessness, anxiety, irritability, sleepiness, and sometimes agitation or paranoia.

Cocaine withdrawal is not as dramatic as withdrawal from other highly addictive drugs: there are often no visible physical symptoms like the vomiting and shaking that accompanies heroin withdrawal or the seizures and delusions that can follow alcohol withdrawal.

In the past, people used this lack of physical symptoms to argue that cocaine was not addictive -- but since addiction is primarily a psychological condition involving desire for more of the drug despite negative consequences, this lack of physical symptoms is unimportant.

The level of craving, pleasurelessness, and depression produced by cocaine withdrawal rivals or exceeds that felt with other withdrawal symptoms.

Related topics: drug abuse, drug abuse and dependence, drug abuse first aid, stroke secondary to cocaine.