Who uses inhalants?
Inhalants are often legal, inexpensive, and easily accessible substances, which make them popular among adolescents. Some studies have suggested that males are the primary users of inhalants; other data suggests that inhalants are particularly popular in suburban communities. In 2008, the National Survey on Drug Use and Health released a study of inhalant users ages 12 to 17. The report indicated that among those who had used an inhalant in the past year, over 10% (about 218,000) of them had also experienced a Major Depressive Episode (MDE). Within this group, about 43% began inhalant use after their MDE and 28.5% began using inhalants about the same time they experienced their MDE. The data suggest that depression may put adolescents at risk for experimenting with inhalants. How do inhalants affect the user? From a few seconds to a few hours, inhalants produce a high in the user. Depending on the dose, part of substance is metabolized by the liver. Though the effects of inhalant use a
