Drug use 'doubles stroke risk'

Amphetamines and cocaine can significantly increase a young person's chances of having a stroke, scientists have claimed.
Researchers who looked at more than 8,300 stroke patients ranging in age from 18 to 44 described the widespread use of illegal stimulant drugs as a "major danger".

The US study found that young people who regularly take amphetamines - known as "speed" - are five times more likely to suffer a stroke than non-users.

Taking cocaine more than doubled the risk of a stroke.

Psychiatrist Dr Arthur Westover, from the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Centre, said: "If we decrease the number of people who are using these substances, then we likely can decrease the number of strokes in this younger population. The implication is that it's preventable."

The researchers, whose findings appear in the Archives of General Psychiatry, assessed the link between illegal drugs and strokes using the records of more than three million patients discharged from Texas hospitals between 2000 and 2003.

They identified 8,369 strokes among those aged 44 and under over the four-year period. Within this time, the number of people taking cocaine and amphetamines, as well as other drugs, increased significantly.

Cocaine was the second most frequently abused drug after alcohol.

The scientists focused on two kinds of stroke: haemorrhagic and ischaemic. The first is caused by bleeding in the brain when a blood vessel bursts. Ischaemic strokes, the most common kind, are the result of blocked arteries supplying blood to the brain.

Taking amphetamines was only linked to a higher risk of haemorrhagic stroke, whereas cocaine increased the chances of both. However amphetamines - especially methamphetamine, or "meth" - were seen as the deadliest threat.

source:www.channel4.com