Consumo de cocaína y enfermedades cardiovasculares en adultos jóvenes

Abstract

Cocaine use at the national and international levels is currently a public health problem related to high mortality and morbidity rates. The increase in cocaine usage in the last decades in young adults has caused multiple medical problems related to its consumption. Although some alterations have been demonstrated in all systems of the organism, it is especially in the cardiovascular system where cocaine exerts its greatest effects which can be as serious as death. This drug may induce arrhythmias, coronary vasospasm, myocardial ischemia, acute myocardial infarction, and sudden death. In the following article, we made a descriptive review of the effects of cocaine on the different body systems while emphasizing the cardiovascular effects that are associated with higher mortality, so as to provide an updated and complete information of this phenomenon that affects a large part of the world’s population and above all, the young population.