Cocaine, amphetamine abuse linked to strokes: study

CHICAGO (Reuters) - Cocaine and amphetamine abusers increase their risk of suffering strokes, a study of Texas hospital patients showed on Monday.

Such stimulants have been linked to strokes in previous research on animals and in some human studies but the analysis of more than 3 million patients treated in Texas hospitals between 2000 and 2003 found a stronger link.

The stimulants are thought to increase stroke risk by raising blood pressure and triggering spasms in blood vessel walls that can damage and narrow the vessels.

In the study cocaine abusers had double the risk of both types of strokes -- ischemic, in which a blockage cuts off blood flow to the brain, and hemorrhagic, in which bleeding occurs in the brain.

Use of amphetamines, which included the popular drug methamphetamine, was associated with a five-fold increase in hemorrhagic strokes, although the drug was not linked to a higher risk of ischemic strokes.

Study author Arthur Westover of The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas said amphetamine abuse also was associated with a higher risk of death in hemorrhagic strokes.

Amphetamine use was growing faster than that of any other drug in Texas during the study period. The rate amphetamine abusers were suffering strokes was increasing faster than the rate of strokes among abusers of any other drug, said the study in the April issue of Archives of General Psychiatry.