UT Southwestern doctors reverse cardiovascular effects of cocaine

by John P. Meyer

The new treatment can counteract the effects of cocaine on the cardiovascular system. But it can't fix stupid.

Dr. Wanpen Vongpatanasin shows how a flattened sugar cube really can help the medicine go down.

Doctors at UT Southwestern Medical Center will detail their discovery of a treatment for counteracting the effects of cocaine on the cardiovascular system in a study to be published in the Aug. 14 issue of the Journal of the American College of Cardiology.

According to Dr. Wanpen Vongpatanasin, the study's senior author, "We have found that cocaine’s effects on the cardiovascular system can be reversed by the use of a drug called dexmedetomidine, which is currently approved by the Food and Drug Administration for anesthetic purposes in operating rooms or intensive care units."

The new treatment would prove superior to the current regimen of nitroglycerin, sedatives and blood pressure medications used to treat cocaine-induced medical disorders, because dexmedetomidine also reverses cocaine's adverse effects on heart rate, blood pressure and vascular resistance.

This graphic demonstrates how dexmedetomidine shoots blue arrows into the spinal cord and ceruleus (whatever that is).

Furthermore, tests have shown, dexmedetomidine as a cocaine counter-agent works equally well among subjects with a genetic mutation previously shown to disrupt dexmedetomidine's beneficial effects. Since this particular mutation is more common among African-Americans, the new treatment is lauded by Dr. Ronald Victor (co-author of the study) as being "applicable to a more diverse, multiethnic population."

With cocaine abuse continuing to be a widespread social reality in the U.S. (affecting 15 percent of young adults in the 18-25 age bracket, according to the National Institute on Drug Abuse), life-threatening emergencies requiring treatment will likely continue to be endemic in local emergency rooms.