The American Heart Association (AHA) published new guidelines in its journal Circulation on March 18 requiring emergency room doctors to ask younger patients with heart problems if they've recently used cocaine.
Two heart treatments can have deadly results when performed on cocaine users, according to the article.
From 2006 to 2007, 17 percent of inpatient non-hospital rehabilitation cases, which include detoxification, at Centre County Drug and Alcohol were for cocaine, compared to 11 percent from 2005 to 2006, according to annual reports.
For these individuals, certain heart condition treatments can be dangerous.
Clot-busting drugs increase the risk of bleeding into the brain for patients whose blood pressure is high from using cocaine.
Beta-blockers, which are used to lower blood pressure without constricting arteries in heart attack patients, can actually have the opposite effect in cocaine users -- increasing blood pressure and squeezing arteries.
When cocaine is used, blood pressure rises because cocaine constricts blood vessels. Blood pressure falls gradually as the stimulation is followed by depression, according to the University Health Services Web site.
"If someone's anxious and using cocaine you would kind of expect that they would be revved up and accelerated and then have a crash afterwards," said Mary Anne Knapp, clinical social worker at Counseling and Psychological Services.
Chest pain caused by cocaine is only a heart attack in about 1 to 6 percent of patients, according to CNN.
Mark A. Trueman, director of the paramedic program at Pennsylvania College of Technology, an affiliate campus of Penn State, said cocaine-induced heart problems happen minimally in the Williamsport area where he works.
"It's common enough to bring comment or attention to it," Trueman said. "We always keep it in the index of suspicion."
Trueman said most of the cocaine-related cases he's seen were in 20- to 30-year-olds.
"I would say it's rare, again just based on my experience of responding to two college campuses within Williamsport and Lycoming County," he said.
The drug impacts patients' moods, Knapp said. Typical effects of cocaine include "euphoria, restlessness, excitement, or feelings of extreme well being," according to the UHS Web site. Then comes the "crash," which involves periods of depression.
From February 2007 to January 2008, there were 125 drug violations in the State College Borough, according to the State College Police Department Web site.
Eighteen of the violations, or 14.4 percent, were for the sale, manufacture or delivery of opium or cocaine. One was for cocaine or opium possession.
