Volatile Solvent Abuse

Cyclohexane is a volatile solvent used as a harmless substitute for dangerous organic solvents in several products, such as paint thinners, gasoline and adhesives. Many of these products are used as drugs of abuse and can severely damage neural tissue and impair neurological functions. However, there is very little information on the effects of cyclohexane on the brain. In humans, cyclohexane produces headaches, sleepiness, dizziness, limb weakness, motor changes, and verbal memory impairment. Recent studies in mice have demonstrated behavioral alterations, reactive gliosis, microglial reactivity, and oxidative stress in the brains of cyclohexane-exposed animals...

Cannabis concentrates are gaining rapid popularity in the California medical cannabis market. These extracts are increasingly being consumed via a new inhalation method called 'dabbing'. The act of consuming one dose is colloquially referred to as "doing a dab". This paper investigates cannabinoid transfer efficiency, chemical composition and contamination of concentrated cannabis extracts used for dabbing. The studied concentrates represent material available in the California medical cannabis market. Fifty seven (57) concentrate samples were screened for cannabinoid content and the presence of residual solvents or pesticides...

Substance abuse has been defined as the use of chemical substances for non medical purposes in order to achieve alterations in psychological functioning. The substances commonly abused in India include nicotine, alcohol, cannabis and opioids. However, the use of solvents and propellants is also on the rise as these are inexpensive, legally available household, industrial, office and automobile products; which are more commonly available to children and adolescents. We hereby describe a 16-year-old boy with combined volatile and alcohol abuse; who presented with increasing ataxia, visual and hearing disturbances...

Volatile organic solvent abuse continues to be a worldwide health problem, including the neurobehavioral teratogenic sequelae of toluene abuse during pregnancy. Although abuse levels of prenatal toluene exposure can lead to a Fetal Solvent Syndrome, there is little research examining these effects on memory. Consumption of toluene can have detrimental effects on the developing hippocampus which could lead to specific spatial learning and memory deficits. This study used a rat model to determine how prenatal exposure to abuse levels of toluene would affect performance in a spatial learning and memory task, the Morris Water Maze (MWM)...

The purposeful inhalation of volatile solvents, such as toluene, to induce self-intoxication is prevalent, particularly within adolescent populations. Chronic misuse results in cognitive and neurobiological impairments, as well as an increased risk for addictive behaviours in adulthood. Toluene-induced neuroadaptations within mesocorticolimbic circuitry are thought, in part, to mediate some of the adverse outcomes of toluene misuse, however our understanding of the neuroadaptive processes remains equivocal...

Lithium-ion batteries are becoming increasingly important for electrifying the modern transportation system and, thus, hold the promise to enable sustainable mobility in the future. However, their large-scale application is hindered by severe safety concerns when the cells are exposed to mechanical, thermal, or electrical abuse conditions. These safety issues are intrinsically related to their superior energy density, combined with the (present) utilization of highly volatile and flammable organic-solvent-based electrolytes...

Toluene (methylbenzene; volatile hydrocarbon) is an industrial solvent that causes major injury to the lungs; the organ being the first capillary bed encountered. We report an unusual case of suicide by a 24-year-old male, paramedical professional, with fatal outcome within 16 h of intentional, intravenous self-administration of toluene, with clinical presentation of acute respiratory distress syndrome. Psychological autopsy revealed severe depressive disorder and solvent (inhalant) abuse, with marital disharmony as the precipitating stressor for suicide...

Volatile substances are used widespread, especially among young people, as a cheap and easily accessible drug. Tetrachloroethylene is one of the solvents exerting effects on the central nervous system with experiences of disinhibition and euphoria. The case presented is that of a 27-year-old female, found dead by her father at home with cotton swabs dipped in the nostrils. She was already known for this type of abuse and previously admitted twice to the hospital for nonfatal acute poisonings. The swabs were still soaked in tetrachloroethylene...

Xylophagia is a condition involving the consumption of paper and form of eating disorder known as pica. Pica is an unusual craving for ingestion of either edible or inedible substances. Inhalants are volatile substances, which produce chemical vapors that can be inhaled to induce a psycho-active or mind altering effect. Although, pica is not linked to solvent abuse, here we report an adolescent case of paper-eating with solvent dependence.

It has long been known that individuals will engage in voluntary inhalation of volatile solvents for their rewarding effects. However, research into the neurobiology of these agents has lagged behind that of more commonly used drugs of abuse such as psychostimulants, alcohol and nicotine. This imbalance has begun to shift in recent years as the serious effects of abused inhalants, especially among children and adolescents, on brain function and behavior have become appreciated and scientifically documented...

This paper describes a method for lifting cyanoacrylate (CNA)-developed latent fingermarks from a glass surface and the detection of five drugs in lifted marks from fingers that had been in contact with the drugs, using Surface Assisted Laser Desorption Ionisation Time of Flight Mass Spectrometry (SALDI-TOF-MS) or Matrix Assisted Laser Desorption Ionisation TOF-MS (MALDI-TOF-MS). Two drugs of abuse (cocaine and methadone) and three therapeutic drugs (aspirin, paracetamol and caffeine) were used as contact residues...

Ethyl chloride (CH3CH2Cl) or chloroethane is a colorless volatile halogenated hydrocarbon gas found in many commercially available solvents, and it may be used as an inhalant of abuse. Neurologic toxicity has been reported, as well as deaths. We present a case of a 47-year-old HIV-positive man who presented with acute reversible neurologic deficits secondary to inhalational exposure to ethyl chloride. Laboratory studies and neuroimaging are nondiagnostic in ethyl chloride-induced neurotoxicity and thus requires a high index of clinical suspicion...

Abuse of volatile inhalants has become a worldwide issue mainly among adolescents of low income social class. Acute and chronic exposure to these substances results in serious neurological and behavioral impairments. Although real exposure consists largely of simultaneous inhalation of multiple solvents, the vast majority of basic research studies have evaluated the actions of a single volatile component leaving the behavioral and neuronal effects of chemical mixture not fully understood. In this study, we investigated the acute behavioral effects of 300, 450 and 600 ppm of paint thinner inhalation on anxiety, locomotor activity and spatial memory...

UNLABELLED: This paper understands inhalant use--the deliberate inhalation of volatile solvents or glues with intentions of intoxication--as a socially and culturally constituted practice. It describes the inhalant use of young street people in Mexico City from their perspective ("the vicioso or inhalant fiend's point of view"). BACKGROUND: Even if inhalant use is globally associated with economic inequality and deprivation, there is a marked lack of ethnography...

Volatile solvents such as those found in fuels, paints, and thinners are found throughout the world and are used in a variety of industrial applications. However, these compounds are also often intentionally inhaled at high concentrations to produce intoxication. While solvent use has been recognized as a potential drug problem for many years, research on the sites and mechanisms of action of these compounds lags behind that of other drugs of abuse. In this review, we first discuss the epidemiology of voluntary solvent use throughout the world and then consider what is known about their basic pharmacology and how this may explain their use as drugs of abuse...

Although helium-related fatalities and concerns about potentially harmful effects of helium use have increased in recent years, virtually nothing is known about the epidemiology of helium inhalation in adolescents. This exploratory investigation examined the prevalence and correlates of helium inhalation in a large sample of at-risk youth. Study participants were 723 Missouri adolescents (M age = 15.5, SD = 1.2) in residential treatment for delinquent behavior. More than one-in-nine (N = 81, 11.5%) adolescents had inhaled helium with the intention of getting high, and one-third (N = 27, 34...

BACKGROUND: This study aims to understand the sociodemographic and clinical profile of inhalant abusers seeking treatment from a tertiary care psychiatric hospital in South India. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The clinical charts of patients who utilized the psychiatric services of a tertiary care center in India for over 10 years were examined for the study. RESULTS: The sample had an urban predominance, was mostly unemployed, and was all male. Most of them had an adolescent age of onset of inhalant use (mean - 16...

This work describes the development and application of a new thermal desorption technique that makes use of the Leidenfrost phenomenon in open ion sources at atmospheric pressure for direct mass spectrometric detection of ultratrace levels of illicit, therapeutic, and stimulant drugs, toxicants, and peptides (molecular weight above 1 kDa) in their unaltered state from complex real world samples without or with minor sample pretreatment. A low temperature dielectric barrier discharge ion source was used throughout the experiments and the analytical figures of merit of this technique were investigated...

Toluene is a volatile solvent that is intentionally inhaled by children, adolescents, and adults for its intoxicating effects. Although voluntary use of toluene suggests that it possesses rewarding properties and abuse potential, it is unknown whether toluene alters excitatory synaptic transmission in reward-sensitive dopamine neurons like other drugs of abuse. Here, using a combination of retrograde labeling and slice electrophysiology, we show that a brief in vivo exposure of rats to a behaviorally relevant concentration of toluene vapor enhances glutamatergic synaptic strength of dopamine (DA) neurons projecting to nucleus accumbens core and medial shell neurons...

AIM: Inhalant abuse is a prevalent and often overlooked form of substance abuse in adolescents. Chronic inhalant abuse can damage respiratory, cardiac, renal, hepatic, and neurologic systems. This study aims to determine the physiologic effects of inhaling solvents on the respiratory functions. METHODS: The general health status of the subjects was assessed by history taking, physical examination and a questionnaire which was designed to show the severity of respiratory symptoms...