EFFECTS OF CHRONIC COCAINE USE ON PHYSICAL HEALTH - A PROSPECTIVE-STUDY IN A GENERAL-POPULATION SAMPLE

Few studies have examined long-term effects of chronic cocaine use on physical health in the general population. The current study assesses the effects of chronic cocaine use by the late twenties on physical he alth by the mid thirties in a longitudinal cohort from the general pop ulation. Measures of physical health included self-reported health sta tus, cardiovascular, neurological, and somatic symptoms, and number of hospital or sick days within the last year. The causal analyses were restricted to males because few females used cocaine heavily and the r elationships between females' cocaine use and physical health were rar ely significant. Among males, chronic cocaine use increased physical h ealth problems, controlling for prior health status, current cocaine u se, use of other drugs and sociodemographic characteristics. In turn, poor health contributed to continued cocaine use. Variance partitionin g based on cocaine use patterns (frequency and chronicity) indicated t hat chronic users experienced the most adverse consequences on subsequ ent physical health. Implications for understanding how chronic cocain e use affects a broad spectrum of physical functioning are discussed.