Solvent Abuse Neurological Sequelae

The evidence indicating that solvent abuse may result in neurological impairment has come from reports of single cases or of small groups of cases. In virtually all cases it has been concerned with people whose sniffing history extends over many years. 

With n-hexane and MEK, the clinical signs typically develop two or three months after abuse and show a fairly rapid progression involving a symmetrical and primarily distal motor neuropathy leading to paralysis and muscle atrophy in the legs and sometimes in the arms as well. Head and trunk muscles are not usually affected. Sensory disturbance is manifest as a diminution in perception of pain. 

Other neurological conditions such as cerebral infarction (Parker, Tarlow and Anderson, 1984) and blindness (Ehyai and Freemon, 1983) have also been reported among chronic solvent abusers, but only in individual cases. The association might therefore be coincidental. 

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Hormes JT, Filley CM, Rosenberg NL Neurologic sequelae of chronic solvent vapor abuse. Neurology 36 698-702,1986... 

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