Cardiologist Strong heart damage from party drugs

Amphetamines as a party drug can cause severe heart damage in young people

14/10/2012

So-called party drugs can make young people heart disease. By taking the amphetamines, the heart can be severely damaged. Because heart damage is no longer reversible, some patients need a donor heart by the early 20's to survive. Even a single dose can be fatal.

According to the cardiologist and head of the Department of Internal Medicine at Krefelder Helios-Klinikum, Prof. Dr. med. med. Heinrich G. Klues, many adolescents will become seriously ill in a few years by eating so-called party drugs. Currently, the doctor treats three young people who have taken a new amphetamine variant. In contrast to the magazine "Focus", the specialist in internal medicine reported that two of his young patients needed a donor heart as a result and the third had already been connected to an artificial heart.

36 young people with serious heart disease in clinical care
Currently, around 36 adolescents and adolescents with severe heart disease - triggered by amphetamines - are receiving in-patient treatment throughout Germany. Opposite the magazine Klues reports: "All known cases in Germany unite that always both heart chambers are heavily damaged". In his view, the desire for a "long weekend" weekend party as well as the increasing pressure to perform in school or university led to a rapid increase in drug use among young people.

In the US, this problem has long been discussed from a medical point of view, in Germany it will "discuss the German Society of Cardiology at its next board meeting," Klues told the news magazine.

Never seen such severe symptoms in young people
The cardiovascular specialist has never seen such severe symptoms in such young patients as in those between 19 and 23 years old. When they were admitted to the clinic, they were barely able to breathe, could not come up stairs without much breath, "said the cardiologist. A patient could no longer sleep flat while lying down, otherwise he suffered from respiratory distress. This is a "typical sign of severe heart disease". Also, the young people have swelling in the legs and water deposits in the pleura (edema).

The chemical substances are constantly changing. In consultations with drug experts, the doctor learned a lot about the criminal manufacturers of illegal amphetamines. So the doctor reported in the conversation with the Focus that the criminals would be very mobile. "The manufacturers change the pills chemically almost weekly, so that the organism can absorb the substances faster and faster and the intoxication lasts longer and longer."

Sudden cardiac death most severe sequelae
Examples of dangerous drugs include ecstasy with and without MDMA. Also dangerous for the cardiovascular system are "speed" and cocaine. A well-known phenomenon in cocaine is the "sudden cardiac death". According to an Italian study many consumers notice the heart problems late. During the study, 83 percent of consumers had cardiac damage, although the subjects reported that they had no problems such as palpitations, chest pain or shortness of breath.

Experts estimate that about a quarter of heart attacks in patients between the ages of 18 and 45 are due to cocaine use. The Hamburg ecstasy researcher Rainer Thomasius reports that "even the first intake of an ecstasy pill can have fatal and in rare cases fatal consequences for the consumer". According to the Federal Criminal Police Office, about 43 people die each year from ecstasy consumption in Germany alone. Because during the intoxication hunger, fatigue and feelings of exhaustion can be suppressed it can lead to circulatory collapse. (Sb)

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