Psychology Today: Inhalant Abuse

Excellent piece on Inhalants posted yesterday to the Psychology Today site: “Early drug use problems: Kids, inhalants, and huffing”

The author notes: "Inhalants are often the first drugs that children try. Do you know enough?"

Click here to read the blog posting.

Effects of Nitrous Oxide

From a blog post: “Nitrous Oxide (Dinitrogen, Monoxide, Dinitrogen Oxide, Entonox)":

• The substance disrupts learning ability. In a typical experiment volunteers who inhaled a low dose of the drug showed worsened reaction time, worsened ability to do arithmetic, and general sedation accompanied by nervous system depression (as opposed to stimulation).
• Interference with driving ability has been noted one-half hour after a dose.
• Short-term exposure can cause dizziness, nausea, vomiting, and breathing difficulty.
• Some recreational users quickly inhale as much nitrous oxide as possible and hold their breath. This technique causes a sudden change of pressure inside the lungs and can rupture small interior structures needed for breathing.
• Blood pressure can go up or down, depending on dosage. Users can lose consciousness, which may be hazardous in a recreational context due to falls or inability to shut off the gas source.
• The substance deactivates vitamin B12, an effect that can cause numbness and difficulty in moving arms and legs.
• Other results can be impotence and involuntary discharge of urine and feces.
• Nitrous oxide interferes with blood clotting, and long-term exposure has caused blood abnormalities.
• Persons with chronic industrial exposure have more kidney and liver disease than usual.
• Nitrous oxide can become very cold when released as a gas from a pressurized container, cold enough to cause frostbite upon meeting skin or throat.
• Breathing nitrous oxide without an adequate supply of oxygen can be fatal; a little in a closed space or a lot from a face mask can suffocate a user.
• Although nitrous oxide is called nonflammable, when inhaled it can seep into the abdominal cavity and bowels, mixing with body gases to create a flammable combination. If ignited the result would be like setting off an explosive inside the body; the danger is real enough that surgical personnel administeringnitrous oxide as an anesthetic have been warned about it.

UPDATE:

Check out this website or this website for more research about nitrous oxide abuse.

Thank you Deputy Ivey

Deputy Ivey from Shelby County Alabama has posted a great Inhalant Abuse piece in his blog -- Safe Kids Journal. Click here to see his Inhalant post.

Intervention's Inhalant Segment

There have been a number of posts on various blogs regarding A&E's Intervention episode that involved inhalant abuse. However, the comments following Jezel.com's post yesterday are particularly interesting.