Does Cocaine Use Cause Stuffed Nose?
Also a month ago SWIM was prescribed antibiotics (his doctor didnt told him what was wrong with him, just gave him prescription), because he had very bad dry cough. After 10 days SWIM have taken all the antibiotics given to him, but the cough is still remaining to this day, but it's not so dry anymore and also now his backs hurt when he coughs. (SWIM is a smoker, although since he started coughing he tries to limit it to minimum) So could there be some link between this and SWIM's nose, or is it irrelevant?
get it checked
Detailed Answer:
Hello and welcome to health care magic,
I am Dr Sriram Nathan an ENT surgeon and I will try to help you out with your problem.
First of all let me appreciate your concern for your friend in that you have so much care for him or her and also have good amount of information on his or her abuse.
Cocaine is a vasoconstrictor drug which essentially means that it makes the blood vessels to the applied area small and this causes the development of scabs in your case in the nose which when removed causes bleeding. This is a perfectly natural (not normal though!) response to cocaine especially in pure forms. Of course in your friends case it is imperative that the abuse should be stopped immediately and that will be the best treatment.
For the nose problems you must also get a nasal endoscopy and CT PNS and get back to me or any ENT with the reports. Meanwhile I would generally prescribe a combination of anti histamine and nasal drops/spray for the temporary alleviation of symptoms. Your doctor will surely know about this.
It goes with saying that even smoking is bad so try to reduce the same and stop it. The tongue lesion can be explained by the smoking and cocaine both and if the lesion persists then you must ask for a simple biopsy so that you can be sure of its benign nature.
The cough seems to be due to a combination of irritation and reflux and also withdrawal from cocaine along with the smoking. A combination of antihistamine and anti reflux therapy in consultation with your doctor and cessation of smoking will solve the problem. Or else you need to take a upper GI endoscopy and get back to me or any ENT with reports.
When any problem gets solved by cocaine (paradoxically!); it is a withdrawal phenomenon which will get better in a couple of weeks or so. Your friend can try a combination of psychotherapy and meditation or other relaxation techniques for this.
Hope this helps and just remember that your support is essential for your friend so that he or she can get better.
If you have any more queries you can get back to me
regards
Dr Sriram Nathan