Cocaine wreaks havoc on the brain

Cocaine causes aging of the brain twice as fast as old age, a new study confirms.

>>>Using cocaine is prone to blindness

Over the years, the brain loses its gray matter - the brain tissue that forms neurons. The decline in gray matter is associated with many signs of old age such as forgetfulness, reduced cognitive ability, neurologist Karren Ersche of Cambridge University said on LiveScience.

Brain scans showed in drug addicts,
Gray matter is thin at twice the speed of ordinary people

However, cocaine addicts in middle age show too many signs of aging. Therefore, to find out the real cause, Ms. Ersche and colleagues used magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to measure the amount of gray matter remaining in the brain of 120 people. Among them, 60 people with cocaine addiction and 60 normal people have the same age, gender and IQ.

The results showed that: Drug addicts will shrink at a much higher volume of brain than normal people: 3.08mm per year compared to 1.69mm.

This result remains true even after people who have been addicted to cocaine and alcohol are excluded from the group, indicating that cocaine is the only culprit.

It is estimated that about 21 million people are using cocaine worldwide, including those who only use the drug once. In the United States, an estimated 1% of the population over the age of 12 has been using addictive drugs recently.

'We need to carefully study the symptoms of drug addiction in the elderly, because they are forgotten by science at this time. They are not diagnosed and many symptoms are misunderstood as stress, stress. My research is the first work to show that the problem is so much bigger, 'Ms. Ersche concluded.

Reference: LiveScience