More than 22 million Americans age 12 and older have used inhalants and every year, more than 750,000 individuals use inhalants for the first time. While research has identified the toxic dangers of inhalants, its epidemiology, neurobiology, treatment, and prevention are still unclear. Most people are unaware of inhalant abuse and how dangerous it is. Inhalants continue to be a severe problem in this country and in some geographic areas, the originally identified “teen” behavior has transitioned into an adult epidemic (Howard, Bowen, Garland, Perron, and Vaughn, 2011).
Inhalants are divided into a variety of groups depending on the organization creating the list. The list below contains the title of the inhalant group along with the chemicals involved. Over 3400 inhalant products have been identified by the National Poison Data System (NPDS).
Inhalant use creates a cycle similar to that of alcoholism with immediate intoxication, dizziness, incoordination, slurred speech, euphoria, lethargy, slowed reflexes, slowed thinking and movement, tremors, blurred vision, stupor or coma, generalized muscle weakness, and involuntary eye movement (APA, 2000). Certain inhalants may result in chemical and thermal burns (difluoroethane/dusters), withdrawal symptoms, persistent mental illness, and catastrophic medical emergencies such as ventricular arrhythmias leading to Sudden Sniffing Death (SSD).” Inhalant intoxication also leads to fatal auto collisions caused by blackouts and loss of coordination. Cognitive effects include significant learning and memory impairment, decreased processing speed, loss of attention, and judgment deficits. Even a single inhalant intoxication can create these neurological and cognitive effects (Avella, Wilson, and Lehrer, 2006; Bowen, Daniel, and Balster,1999).
Who Uses Inhalants?
There are inhalant use/attitude data for teens and adolescents from the late 1990s to 2017 from several survey sources. Unfortunately, most of it involves small populations enrolled in a limited number of schools in the U.S. Although this information was current at the time and year it was compiled, some of it is “historic” in 2019 and doesn’t depict the current situation. The profile of inhalant users coming from low-income families in rural areas, or having mental illness and poor social skills, is no longer the case. Teens often use inhalants as a party drug and many times are good students from middle-class homes with educated and employed parents. The inhalant use problem is transitioning from a teen abuse situation to an adult (over the age of 18 years) epidemic.
The most prominent surveys measuring drug use (which includes inhalants) of teens in the U.S. are: The U.S. Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) “Youth Risk Behavior Survey” (high schools 1995 to 2019); The National Institute on Drug Abuse’s (NIH) “Monitoring the Future;” and the “National Survey of Drug Use and Health.” Inhalants are not always the primary focus of these surveys, therefore limited information is provided. Additionally, these findings are not to be viewed as the actual situation taking place in the U.S.
There is also data collected and evaluated from the American Association of Poison Control Centers (AAPC) along with inhalant death numbers from Medical Examiner Annual Reports in several states. Although numerous organizations state there isn’t data available on inhalant use, there actually is but it needs to be located and presented.
The National Survey on Drug Use and Health (2002-2012; 2015-2017 Data (SAMSHA; NIH)
There are two documents available; SAMSHAs March 2014 report discussing results from the 2002-2012 survey data, and the NIH data information which documents survey responses from 2015-1017. The March 2014 report discusses data collected from students ages 12 to 17 years old during the period from 2002 to 2012. Both data sets address how often adolescents/teens used inhalants during different time periods of their life. The data is reported by age, race and geographic area in the U.S. The second report not only evaluates the drug use in teens in the U.S. from 2015-2017, but it also includes students up to and over the age of 26 years. This discussion will only focus on the “Inhalants” drug section of this second set of data. The age groups identified from the 2015-2017 data are: “Ages 12 or Older;” “Ages 12-17,” “Ages 18-25” and “Ages 26 or Older.” The response categories are: “Lifetime,” “Past Year,” and “Past Month.” Again, numbers are reported in percent.
The SAMSHA March 2014 report states that in 2012, almost 650,000 adolescents aged 12 to 17 years old used inhalants in the past year. Although there has been a decline in the percent of students using inhalants since 2006, there are still many teens involved in this form of substance abuse. In 2011, 3.3 percent of the surveyed population stated they had used inhalants, while in 2012, only 2.6 percent of the surveyed population indicated they had. Decreases were noted in the demographic groups: males, whites, those living in the Northeast and West, and those living in metropolitan areas (SAMSHA, 2014).
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