NEW YORK, Jun 30 (Reuters Health) - Although cocaine is highly addictive, withdrawal from the drug may not be the roller coaster ride it is commonly thought to be--involving nowhere near the intense physical symptoms that occur during recovery from alcohol or heroin addiction.

      According to a report in the June issue of Drug and Alcohol Dependence, recovering cocaine addicts seem to see a steady decline in withdrawal symptoms over time. In addition, they do not show the serious sleep disturbances or intense cravings that have been attributed to recovery from the drug. Dr. Scott Coffey, a professor of psychiatry at the University at Buffalo, New York, led the study.

      In an interview with Reuters Health, Coffey said that the "clinical folklore" holds that cocaine addicts go through ups and downs during withdrawal, suffering mood swings, on-and-off sleep disturbances, and bouts of craving for the drug.

      Yet little research backs up this idea. In his study, Coffey found that 24 patients who abstained from cocaine for 28 days got through with relatively mild withdrawal symptoms. Over time, the patients experienced less anger, depression, and anxiety, and gained more energy and greater ability to concentrate.

      "This is a real hopeful message," Coffey said. "Symptoms will get better over time."   Nevertheless, he cautioned, mild withdrawal symptoms bear no relation to the drug's capacity for addiction. "Cocaine is phenomenally addictive," he said.

      This study instead illustrates that different drugs carry different patterns of withdrawal, according to Coffey. Symptoms are "much more pronounced" in recovering alcoholics and heroin addicts, he noted. For instance, alcohol withdrawal can cause life-threatening seizures; and withdrawal from heroin involves an array of physical symptoms and intense cravings that often must be controlled with drug treatment.

      "We're starting to get a clearer picture of what patients will go through with (recovery from) different drugs," Coffey said.    According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse, close to two million Americans use cocaine at least once a month, and a 1999 study showed that 10% of high school seniors had tried the drug.

      SOURCE: Drug and Alcohol Dependence June 2000.