Define inhalant abuse and discuss the side effects and potentially dangerous consequences

Answer 1

Inhalant abuse involves common household products—including whipped cream canisters, cooking sprays, deodorant and hair sprays, glues, nail polish remover, spray paints, gasoline, and lighter and cleaning fluids—whose vapors or aerosol gases are inhaled to get high. Also referred to as "huffing" or "sniffing glue," these drugs are taken by volatilization and not following burning and heating, as is the case with tobacco, marijuana, or crack cocaine.

Even occasional or a single instance of inhalant abuse can be extremely dangerous. The effects include alcohol-like intoxication, euphoria, hallucinations, drowsiness, disinhibition, lightheadedness, headaches, dizziness, slurred speech, agitation, loss of sensation, belligerence, depressed reflexes, impaired judgment, and unconsciousness. As with other drug abuse, users can be injured by the harmful effects of the vapors and detrimental intoxication behavior.

More serious consequences include suffocation due to lack of oxygen supply, pneumonia, vomit aspiration, organ damage (including to the brain, liver, and kidneys), abnormal heart rhythms, and sudden cardiac death. Inhalants are especially risky because they can be deadly at any time, even the very first time they are used. Inhalant abuse leads to a strong need to continue their use, and individuals abusing inhalants are more likely to initiate other drug use and have a higher lifetime prevalence of substance abuse.