Inhalant abuse: An exploratory study

BACKGROUND: Inhalants are being abused by large numbers of people throughout the world, particularly children and adolescents. It is also an often overlooked form of ubstance abuse in adolescents. AIMS: The current study explored the inhalant abuse among adolescents seeking treatment from a tertiary care drug de-addiction clinic. SETTINGS AND DESIGN: The study was conducted at a tertiary level multispecialty hospital. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The current study was a chart review of the cases with inhalant abuse/dependence presenting to the clinic over a 1-year period. All the treatment records of the de-addiction clinic were reviewed, and information was gathered regarding patients with inhalant abuse/dependence. STATISTICAL ANALYSIS: Descriptive statistics with frequency distribution was carried out by using SPSS version 10.0. RESULTS: The mean age of the subjects was 16.24 years (SD±1.9 years; range 12–18 years). Twenty-two percent of the subjects were illiterate. Forty percent of the adolescents had a family history of alcohol use problems and 48% that of tobacco use. The mean age of the initiation of inhalant use was 11.6 years (SD±2.17 years). It varied from 9 to 18 years. Forty percent of the adolescents had made a previous abstinence attempt. CONCLUSIONS: The findings provide important information on an underresearched area in psychiatry.