Addiction may not always come as a surprise—if you use substances recreationally, you may be aware of the risks that come with them. But what about those drugs that are prescribed for conditions like severe pain and relief from suffering? Some prescription drugs are highly addictive and pose a high risk of abuse, and this is especially true when people are taking them to relieve pain.
The Brompton Cocktail is a combination of several substances originally developed to help people manage severe pain. The idea of mixing substances to help people who are suffering in extreme pain isn’t new.
The medical field has been using powerful pain-relieving combinations for centuries. The combination that was the ancestor to the Brompton Cocktail, mixing morphine and cocaine, may have began as early as the nineteenth century.
What’s A Brompton Cocktail And How Is It Used?
As previously mentioned, the Brompton Cocktail consists of a few different substances, meant to give ultimate relief from pain. Traditionally, the Brompton Cocktail consisted of morphine or heroin, cocaine, and a highly pure form of ethyl alcohol (or gin). Sometimes, the mixture also contained an anti-nausea agent, such as Thorazine.
The Brompton Cocktail was originally used to treat patients with agonizing pain conditions, but also came to be used for relief of symptoms in patients with terminal diseases, like cancer. This elixir isn’t as commonly used in present day.
However, this mixture has become popular in recreational use. Now, the name Brompton Cocktail refers to any mixture that contains alcohol, an opioid (like heroin or morphine), cocaine, and/or phenothiazine (a tranquilizer).
Why Is The Brompton Cocktail Addicting?
Using the Brompton Cocktail as a form of relief for someone suffering with a terminal disease can be quite helpful. Using it recreationally, though, can be dangerous. Why?
Each of the substances within the cocktail have a different effect:
- The opioid provides nearly instant pain relief and calm, relaxing feelings
- Cocaine, a stimulant, produces feelings of euphoria and well-being
- Alcohol, a depressant, also produces anti-anxiety types of feelings and slows brain and motor functions
These substances are each highly addictive on their own. When you combine them, you’re at heightened risk for the dangers associated with them. All of these substances come with their own side effects and consequences, and addiction falls in both categories.
Opioids, cocaine, and alcohol all have immediate effects on your body. You get instant relief, in different ways and from different symptoms, but relief nonetheless. The result is that your body likes this relief, and your brain changes communication pathways because of it. You then start to seek the substance more and more, forming a habit, and after time, addiction.
Dangers Of Addiction
Addiction is dangerous because it consumes you. When you become addicted to a Brompton Cocktail mixture, you’re not just addicted to one substance, but several. And addiction makes you not think the same way you used to. Instead, you begin seeking the substance at any cost.
As you might guess, compulsively seeking substances can have some dire effects on your health and on your life. Each substance affects your health in different ways, but addiction to any substance can change your life from very minor effects to changes that make it hard to live your daily life.
Some of the ways addiction can alter your life include:
- Changes to personal relationships
- A toll on finances
- Decreased performance at school or work
- Loss of job or career
- Permanent changes to health, affecting daily life
- Lack of interest in things you used to love
- Compulsive substance-seeking that doesn’t allow for much else
Consequences Of Substance Abuse: Opioids, Cocaine, And Alcohol
Addiction can cause so many consequences in your life, and one of the biggest of these is the effects to your health. Each of the substances in the Brompton Cocktail is highly addictive, which means it changes your brain chemistry to make you addicted.
But abuse of opioids, cocaine, and alcohol also greatly affect your health. Just a few of the consequences of these substances includes the following:
- Opioids: this group includes powerful pain relievers and the illicit drug, heroin. Consequences include collapse of veins, infection in your heart lining or valves, pus-filled, swollen tissues, chronic constipation and stomach cramps, development of liver or kidney disease, and lung troubles, according to the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA).
- Cocaine: Long-term effects of cocaine abuse depend on the method of administration. Taken by mouth, these include reduced blood flow and bowel decay. By snorting, these include nosebleeds, loss of sense of smell, chronic runny nose, and troubles swallowing. By injection, effects may include high risk of contraction of infections and infectious diseases, such as Hepatitis and HIV, and risky sexual behavior that could lead to contracting sexually transmitted diseases.
- Alcohol: prolonged alcohol abuse can lead to liver problems, vision problems, and increase risk of development of cancer, among other issues.
What Treatment Is Available For Brompton Cocktail Addiction?
Treatment for any type of addiction has to be comprehensive. Addiction doesn’t just affect your physical health, but actually changes the way you think and behave, so treatment for it must address these changes and work to better them. This is especially true when dealing with addiction to more than one substance.
Addiction to opioids is different from addiction to cocaine, which is different from addiction to alcohol. At our rehab centers, we offer unique healing that works to address the differing symptoms and conditions of any and all substance use disorders. How do we accomplish this? By utilizing a multidisciplinary approach.
In short, this means we use several methods of treatment for well-rounded results. Counseling helps you work through troubling thoughts and emotions (healing of the mind). Behavioral therapy like Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) or Dialectical Behavioral Therapy (DBT) help you replace suppressive behaviors associated with addiction with new, positive behaviors.
Medication assisted therapy can help you safely detox from use of substances. Since opioids, cocaine, and alcohol all come with uncomfortable bouts of withdrawal, this is an important part of Brompton Cocktail addiction treatment.
Finally, the best treatment results you’ll get can be found at inpatient, private rehab centers like the ones you’ll find at DrugRehab.org. Our rehab centers offer a superb quality of care that can be the difference between simply recovering and actually getting well.
Find The Best Rehab Center Today
The Brompton Cocktail is a powerful concoction, and addiction to it can be dangerous since it contains multiple addictive substances. You may have become addicted to this mixture because, after years of abuse, you built up a tolerance and now are scared about what will happen if you stop taking it.
When you enter drug or alcohol rehab, you don’t have to live in fear any more. We can help you find the rehab center that will work with you to design a program that fits your needs. Contact us today at DrugRehab.org to learn more.
For More Information Related to “What Is A Brompton Cocktail Addiction?” Be Sure To Check Out These Additional Resources From DrugRehab.org:
- What Is “Freebase” Cocaine?
- What is Heroin Cut With?
- Tranquilizer Abuse and Addiction
- What Are The Symptoms of Alcohol Poisoning?
- What is Alcoholic Hepatitis?
- What Is Client-Centered Therapy For Addiction Treatment
Sources
Drug Free World—What Are Opioids?
National Institute On Drug Abuse—DrugFacts: Cocaine
National Institute On Drug Abuse—DrugFacts: Heroin
U.S. National Library Of Medicine—Alcoholism And Alcohol Abuse
