Posted by djmmm on March 19, 2002, at 10:05:14
In reply to Re: ZOLOFT COCAINE MARIJUANA!!, posted by Mitchell on March 18, 2002, at 22:41:15
I misread the original post (it happens)... I don't appreciate the tone of your response...regardless, you should have understood the point I made....
> >>I read something about a desease that can be caused by mixing drugs with Zoloft.
>
> > And the disease you are referring to is called Drug Addiction.
>
> Of all the causes of drug addiction mentioned in various scientific and speculative sources, I don't recall reading any source that implicates a combination of illicit or prescribed drugs and Zoloft as a cause of addiction. Is that a rhetorical suggestion, or does it refer to a specific study?
>
> Of the drug combinations you mentioned, I would be most concerned about opiates and ethyl alchohol, especially if your are an inexperienced (opiate naive) user. Alcohol is a central nervous system depressant, as are opiates and opiods. Toxicology studies suggest combinations of CNS depressants and heroin are implicated in far more heroin deaths than is heroin alone. Benzos and other pharmaceutical CNS depressants also appear often in forensic toxicology analyses of opiate and opiod related deaths. Even experienced (opiod tolerant) users often encounter unexpected respiratory depression and even death when alcohol or another CNS depressant is used along with a routine dose of opiates or opiods.
>
> Alcohol and cocaine are frequently mixed with little acute harm, but the combination is also often implicated in acute psychosis. In rather gross anecdotal terms, alchol lowers inhibition while cocaine increases motivation. Motivations that arise while under the influence of cocaine and alcohol, either pre-existing motivations, motivations that might relate to the setting in which the drugs are used or physiologically driven motivations that can result from the drugs (such as drug seeking behavior) are implicated in violent behavior. I think the mechanism might be that cocaine increases dopamine levels by blocking re-uptake of dopamine. Increased dopamine levels increase attention to environmental stimuli that would otherwise be selectively ignored. Alcohol further decreases the ability to selectively attenuate responses to an already disordered flood of information. My hunch is that most cocaine problems, like most alcohol problems, result from usage far in excess of a therapuetic dose. As with all (or at least most) illicit drug use, the practice is not accompanied by informed advice about frequency and amount of dosage. On top of the difficult problem of correctly self-titrating an appropriate dose, users encounter economic challenges (insurance never pays for cocaine :o ) and a criminal culture that results from official prohibition. It is often difficult to differentiate between socially induced problems related to these popular medications and problems that result from the medicine itself.
>
> My observation is that various SSRIs and that well-known plant substance that acts on anandamide receptors are a very common drug combination, especially among mid-management level professionals. Regardless official policies purportedly intended to end canabinoid use, I suspect that without this particular combination of legal and prohibited medications in the popular pharmacopoeia, many corporations would have difficulty finding employees who would comply with their expections.
poster:djmmm
thread:214
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20020318/msgs/98789.html