Volatile solvent abuse

Stewart RD, Fisher TN, Hosko MJ, et al Experimental human exposure to methylene chloride. Arch Environ Health 25 342-348, 1972 Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration Preliminary Estimates from the 1995 National Household Survey on Drug Abuse. Rockville, MD, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 1996 Tenenbein M, PillayN Sensory evoked potentials in inhalant (volatile solvent) abuse. J Paediatr Child Health 29 206-208, 1993... 

Inhalant abuse is also termed volatile solvent abuse. It should be noted that many drugs besides those classified as inhalants can be administered by inhalation, including marijuana, cocaine, heroin, methamphetamine, fentanyl patches, and nicotine. These drugs are not volatile solvents and have different physical and chemical properties therefore, they are not classified as inhalants. Inhalants are chemicals that are volatile, meaning they can readily vaporize from... 

Beauvais, F. Volatile Solvent Abuse Trends and Patterns, Inhalant Abuse A Volatile Research Agenda, eds. C.W. Sharp, F. Beauvais, and R. Spence. Research Monograph 129. NIH Pub. No. 93-3475. Rockville, MD National Institute on Drug Abuse, 1992, pp. 13-42. 

Volatile solvent abuse or glue sniffing, is common among teenagers, especially males. The success of the modem chemical industry provides easy access to these substances as adhesives, dry cleaners, air fresheners, deodorants, aerosols and other products. Various techniques of administration are employed viscous products may be inhaled from a plastic bag, liquids from a handkerchief or plastic bottle. The immediate euphoriant and excitatory effects are replaced by confusion, hallucinations and delusions as the dose is increased. Chronic abusers, notably of toluene, develop peripheral neuropathy, cerebellar disease and dementia damage to the kidney, liver, heart and limgs also occurs with solvents. Over 50% of deaths from the practice follow cardiac arrhythmia, probably caused by sensitisation of the myocardium to catecholamines and by vagal inhibition... 

Johns, A. (1991). Volatile solvent abuse and 963 deaths. British Journal of Addiction, 95, 1053-1056. 

According to DSM-IV-TR (American Psychiatric Association 2000), inhalant use disorders include inhalant abuse and inhalant dependence. The DSM-IV-TR criteria for these conditions apply only to the use of volatile solvents, and... 

Ramsey JD, Flanagan RJ. 1982. Detection and identification of volatile organic compounds in blood by headspace gas chromatography as an aide to the diagnosis of solvent abuse. J Chromatogr 240 423-444. 

Volatile solvents are useful in industry and in homes because of their ability to dissolve fat. When inhaled, however, this property poses problems to the brain and the network of nerves that connect the brain and spinal cord to the rest of the body, ...thus, because the brain is a lipid-rich organ, chronic solvent abuse dissolves brain cells, the American Academy of Pediatrics wrote in a 1996 policy paper about inhalants. The chemical vapors also damage the myelin sheath, the fatty wrapper that insulates the fibers of many nerve cells that carry signals. 

In the UK 3.5-10% of children under 13 years have abused volatile substances, and 0.5-1% are long-term users (3). In 1980 24 cases of solvent abuse were reported in Singapore, but by 1984 the number had increased to 763 and from 1987-91, 1781 glue sniffers were identified. In 2004, it was reported that street children in India were abusing typewriter eraser fluid, which contains toluene. In low-income families in Sao Paulo, Brazil, 24% of children had inhaled a volatile substance at some time and 4.9% had inhaled within the last month. 

Analytical methods for use in the investigation of drug dependence are given below, together with techniques for the detection of other substances which may be abused. These include volatile solvents (p. 31), diuretics (p. 32), and laxatives (p. 32). 

Figure 1.1 Inhalants are the fourth most popular drug of abuse among high-school students. In 2000, more than 2 million Americans aged 12 to 17 had used inhalants at least once in their lifetime. In this graph, the inhalants are grouped by type. Volatile solvents were the most popular type of inhalant used, with 3.9% of individuals inhaling glue, shoe polish, or toluene.

The fact that there are so many different compounds abused as inhalants brings up question of how all of these compounds act on the brain. Do they all act in the same way The answer to this question will be discussed in Chapter 4. It has been argued by some researchers that inhalant abuse should be regrouped as solvent abuse, volatile anesthetic abuse, and nitrite abuse, since the populations that abuse these substances are different." Solvents are primarily abused by teenagers, anesthetics are generally abused by older professionals who have access to them, and nitrites are abused by populations older than teenagers. In the case of nitrites, as will be discussed later, the way the chemical acts upon the body appears to be quite different as well. In this book, the differences between these subgroups of inhalants will be discussed when useful. 

John J. Woodward, and colleagues found that NMDA receptors were affected by volatile solvents. They found that the particular form of the receptor most predominantly expressed in the brain during adolescence is the most sensitive to inhalants. This could have serious implications, since inhalant abusers are most often adolescents, and this may partially explain the impaired cognition and learning functions noted in inhalant abusers. 

Many household and commercial neurotoxic products are intentionally inhaled for recreational purposes. The volatile solvents contained in these products are rapidly absorbed and carried to the brain, producing a feeling of euphoria. The practice, also known as glue sniffing or huffing, is widespread among adolescents and has resulted in numerous permanent neurological injuries and deaths when excessive quantities of neurotoxic solvents have been absorbed. 109 110 Table 18.5 lists volatile chemicals that are frequently abused by intentional inhalation and the products that contain these compounds. 

Steffee CH, Davis GJ, Nicol KK. A whiff of death Fatal volatile solvent inhalation abuse. South Med J1996 89(9) 879-84. 

A form of substance abuse of increasing interest is the recreational use of inhalants. Taken literally, this classification is useless, as it may be construed to include use of tobacco, crack cocaine, or marijuana (Sharp 1992). A better designation may be "volatile substance" abuse, a more accurate description of an important drug abuse pattern. Volatile substances that are commonly abused include glues, aerosols, anesthetics, cleaning agents, and solvents (Sharp 1992). Abuse of inhalants has been associated with a variety of toxicologies... 

Today, if anaesthesia is excluded, acute poisoning with solvents and other volatile substances usually follows deliberate inhalation of vapour in order to become intoxicated [volatile substance abuse (VSA)]. Patients who ingest solvents or solvent-containing products either by accident or... 

To date, there are no established data about any beneficial pharmacotherapy for abusers of volatile solvents. - ... 

Of the 251 children who acknowledged having sniffed, 151 (3.6% of the total sample) indicated that they had sniffed enough to feel high or intoxicated , 26 (0.6%) did not know whether they had been intoxicated and the remaining 74 (1.7%) denied intoxication. The term solvent abuse will henceforth be used to denote the practice of sniffing volatile substances to the point of intoxication. 

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