Cocaine Habit Might Speed Brain Aging TUESDAY, April 24
(HealthDay News) -- Chronic cocaine use may speed up brain
aging, a new study suggests. British researchers scanned the
brains of 60 people with cocaine dependence and 60 people with
no history of substance abuse, and found that those with cocaine
dependence had greater levels of age-related loss of brain gray
matter. The cocaine users lost about 3.08 milliliters (ml) of
brain volume a year, nearly twice the rate of about 1.69 ml per
year seen in the healthy people, the University of Cambridge
researchers said. The increased decline in brain volume in the
cocaine users was most noticeable in the prefrontal and temporal
cortex, regions associated with attention, decision-making,
self-regulation and memory, the investigators noted in a
university news release. "As we age, we all lose gray matter.
However, what we have seen is that chronic cocaine users lose
gray matter at a significantly faster rate, which could be a
sign of premature aging. Our findings t