Sociocultural Perspectives on Volatile Solvent Use

Joseph Trimble, Fred Beauvais

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2021
• ISBN:
  9781000525441
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Medicine
• Subtopic: Health Care Delivery

Volatile solvent abuse is a growing problem that receives little research or treatment attention compared with other drug abuse problems. Whereas prevention programs and other societal factors are reducing the experimentation with a majority of drugs, solvent abuse appears to run its own independent course. Sociocultural Perspectives on Volatile Solvent Use gives you groundbreaking, vital information about the problem of solvent abuse among American Indian and Alaska Native youth. Drug treatment providers, clinical practitioners, and the general community can use the information in this book to understand the patterns of solvent abuse and implement prevention and treatment strategies for other groups within the larger culture. Among the first book-length publications on this problem, this volume helps you acknowledge the epidemic levels of solvent abuse and treat the problem with the urgency it deserves. Sociocultural Perspectives on Volatile Solvent Use defines the three subtypes of solvent users (young inhalant users, adolescent polydrug users, and adult users), presents a biobehavioral model of drug-taking behavior, and identifies the principal factors related to volatile solvent use. You will also learn the answers to prevention and treatment questions such as:

• Why does the use of solvents often occur in rapidly cycling epidemics?
• Can effective policy measures be introduced that will limit the availability of inhalable solvents?
• What is the optimal length of time needed for effective treatment?
• What level and type of neurological damage is caused by solvents, and is this damage reversible?
• What are the unique issues that must be addressed in relapse prevention and aftercare plans?

The peculiar nature of solvent use places it outside the normal range of substance abuse research; thus, knowledge of the phenomenon is quite limited. Sociocultural Perspectives on Volatile Solvent Use addresses this challenge by bringing together a number of solvent abuse researchers to discuss the problem, kindle ideas and interest among others to explore this drug-taking behavior, and show you the clear need for continued inquiry into the phenomena of solvent use and abuse.

The Three Common Behavioral Patterns of Inhalant/Solvent Abuse: Selected Findings and Research Issues

Philip A. May, PhD
Ann M. Del Vecchio, PhD

SUMMARY. One of the necessary steps in understanding behavior is to adequately classify the existing patterns associated with that behavior. The literature contains evidence for at least three common subtypes of inhalant users: (a) young inhalant users, (b) adolescent polydrug users who frequently use inhalants and (c) adult users. Several national and regional data sources are examined for the presence of these types and the categorization is generally upheld. [Article copies available for a fee from The Haworth Document Delivery Service: 1-800-342-9678. E-mail address: [email protected]]

Philip A. May is Professor of Sociology and Psychiatry, and Director, Center on Alcoholism, Substance Abuse, and Addictions, and Ann M. Del Vecchio is Research Scientist, Center on Alcoholism, Substance Abuse, and Addictions, both at the University of New Mexico.

The authors extend special thanks to Virginia Rood.

Partial clerical support was provided by Grant #T34-MH19101. Some data presented here were collected and analyzed under contract with the Native American Adolescent Injury Prevention Program of the State of New Mexico, Department of Health. Other data originate from the Voices of Indian Teens Project, a joint venture of the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center, National Center for American Indian and Alaska Native Mental Health Research and the University of New Mexico Center on Alcoholism, Substance Abuse, and Addictions. Funding for the latter was provided by NIAAA (RO1 AA08474).

The voluntary inhalation of various household and industrial solvents (e.g., glue, gasoline, cleaning fluids, and others) has been practiced for many years. It is only during the past four decades, however, that considerable attention has been given to the problem in medical and behavioral literature. This paper is concerned with the use of volatile household and commercial solvents, exclusive of amyl and butyl nitrites, commonly referred to as nitrites. This article is not concerned with an extensive review of the literature on inhalant abuse and the use of solvents in general; the reader is referred to a number of articles that provide such reviews or present a substantive overview of the problem (c.f., Beauvais, 1992b; Cohen, 1977; Novak, 1980; Remington & Hoffman, 1984; Watson, 1980), and to three monographs published by the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) (Crider & Rouse, 1988; Sharp, Beauvais, & Spence, 1992; Sharp & Brehm, 1977). What this article is concerned with is a classification of different patterns of inhalant or solvent abuse.

The literature on inhalants and solvents has grown extensively and more detailed in recent years, and the various characteristics of inhalant abuse are generally well documented from a variety of studies. Most of the studies are survey research, but there are others that detail findings from people treated for solvent abuse.

There are, however, gaps in the literature regarding various behavioral issues. This paper will attempt to highlight some of those gaps, particularly concerning behavioral subtypes found among inhalant abusers in the United States.

NATIONAL PREVALENCE ACROSS AGE GROUPS

National prevalence data are presented in Tables 1 and 2. The data on inhalant use in Table 1 (from the National Institute on Drug Abuse, National Household Survey, 1994) reveal that the highest lifetime prevalence (“ever used”) is recorded among males in the 18-25 and 26-34 age categories. Approximately 12% of all males in these age groups report having used inhalants, and 7.4% to 6.1% of the females in these age categories report use. However, when the rates of use in the “past year” are examined, a different picture emerges. Approximately 4% of all males and females in ages 12-17 have used inhalants in the past year, which is only slightly higher than the use rates in ages 18-25. Use in the “past month” shows that a lower percentage-approximately 2%-of males and females between the ages of 1...