Long-Term Effects

Long-term effects of inhalants can lead to the following health consequences:

• Liver injury
• Hearing loss
• Asphyxia-related brain damage
• Bone marrow disease (NIDA, 2020; Lipari, 2017)

Potentially severe long-term side effects include:

• Cardiac toxicity (e.g., irreversible heart inflammation, congestive heart failure).
• Respiratory damage (e.g., Goodpasture’s syndrome, emphysema).
• Liver and kidney damage.
• Bone marrow suppression/damage.
• Progressive neurological injury resulting in hearing loss, limb spasms, and loss of coordination.
• Delayed behavioral development.
• Anoxic brain damage (secondary to asphyxia or respiratory arrest) (NIDA, 2020; Anderson, 2003).

We still lack sufficient studies of the long-term studies impact of inhalant use at a young age. More recently, animal studies have been done to begin the early identification of long-term effects (Malloul et al., 2017). Neurotoxic and neuropsychiatric effects can result from the drugs' lipophilic characteristics, making them easy to be absorbed into the central nervous system (CNS).

The most common issues are the following inhalant use:

• Depression.
  
• Suicide.
  
• Seizures.
  
• Impaired memory and learning
  
• Brain damage.

Additional considerations

• Kaposi's Sarcoma - According to Focus on Adolescent services (2005), amyl and butyl nitrites have been associated with Kaposi's sarcoma (KS), the most common cancer reported among AIDS patients.  Early studies of KS showed that many people with KS had used volatile nitrites.  Researchers continue to explore the hypothesis of nitrites as a factor contributing to the development of KS in HIV-infected.
  
• Inhalant Induced Persisting Dementia - For this type of dementia to be diagnosed, there must be evidence from the history, physical exam, or laboratory findings that the deficits are etiologically related to the persisting effects of inhalants. This disorder is termed "persisting" because dementia persists long after the individual has experienced the effects of inhalant intoxication and withdrawal (APA, 2000).
  
• Burns - The highly volatile nature of inhalants leads to burns. Inhalants cause impaired judgment. Youths have received burns from lighting a cigarette while inhaling or, in rural settings, throwing a used inhalant container in a bonfire.
  
• Developmental harm to fetuses - Abuse of inhalants during pregnancy may place infants and children at increased risk of developmental injury.
  
  • In 2003 Anderson and Loomis reported that fetal solvent syndrome manifests as low birth weight, small head size, facial dysmorphology, and muscle abnormalities similar to fetal alcohol syndrome.
    
  • Hannigan and Bowen (2010), in a review of studies of the impact of toluene on fetal development, found the following evidence:
    
    • The risk for pregnancy problems, developmental delays, and neurobehavioral difficulties is higher for the children of females exposed to high concentrations of organic solvents.
      
    • The risks appear to be higher in cases of abuse exposure to solvents such as toluene than trichloroethylene.
      
    • Perinatal death has also been documented following extremely high levels of maternal solvent exposure, typically by abuse
      
    • Clinical reports of toluene-associated embryopathy and malformations have been described following toluene "abuse" by pregnant women
      
    • At delivery, toluene-exposed infants were characteristically premature and delayed growth and micro-cephalic with facial (e.g., deep-set eyes, small face, low set ears, micrognathia) and body dysmorphology (e.g., blunted fingertips, tiny fingernails, urinary tract anomalies).
      
    • As the children grow, several developmental delays and impairments become evident (e.g., language impairments, growth retardation, hyperactivity, cerebellar dysfunction
      
    • High exposure to solvent was linked with graphomotor and language ability in 4 or 5-year-olds.

References

Anderson, C. & Loomis, G. (2003). Recognition and prevention of inhalant abuse. Am Fam Physician. 68(5), 869-74.

Hannigan, J. H. & Bowen, S. E. (2010) Reproductive Toxicology and Teratology of Abused Toluene. Systems Biology in Reproductive Medicine. 56(2), 184-200.

Lipari, R.N. (2017). Understanding adolescent inhalant use. Rockville, MD: Center for Behavioral Health Statistics and Quality, Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration.

Malloul, H., Mahdani, F. M., Bennis, M., & Ba-M'hamed, S. (2017). Prenatal Exposure to Paint Thinner Alters Postnatal Development and Behavior in Mice. Frontiers in behavioral neuroscience, 11, 171.

National Institute on Drug Abuse. (2020). Inhalants drugfacts. https://nida.nih.gov/sites/default/files/dfinhalants_1.pdf

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