At study entry, 55 cocaine-dependent (DSM-III-R) patients with cocaine-positive urine had slightly higher resting heart rates and blood pressures than 36 patients with cocaine-negative urines, which achieved significance for 3 of 11 parameters. A repeated-measures analysis of medication-compliant patients found no significant cardiovascular differences between cocaine- positive and cocaine-negative urine conditions for either desipramine (n=10) or fluoxetine (n=20). Thus, cocaine use appears to produce minimal subacute cardiovascular effects, which are not accentuated by desipramine or fluoxetine, in physically healthy cocaine-dependent patients. There are two limitations to this conclusion, however. First, acute cocaine-desipramine or cocaine-fluoxetine interactions may exist that produce greater, but shorter-lived, cardiovascular effects than were assessed by this study design. Second, the possibility that cocaine- desipramine or cocaine-fluoxetine interactions increase the risk for cardiac arrhythmias, thought to be a major mechanism for cocaine's lethality, was not addressed by this study. 2 tables and 17 references