Use of Solvents as Addition Drugs and Associated Factors among Undergraduated in São Paulo, Brazil
Authors: Lauar Gabriela Caetano Vilela , Latrônico Alice Messias Amaral , Olcerenko Bianca Giovanna Batista , Taricano Ingrid Dragan 
Published: June 2021

The deliberate inhalation of volatile solvents with intentions of intoxication is common among street. Inhalants are essentially impure, consisting of multiple toxic components and the consumption normally is in form of marginalized drug use. The preference for inhalants above other drugs as peer group influence, cost efficiency, ease of availability, and convenient packaging. The rapidity of mood alteration, for instance explains why sniffing often occurs in sessions. That is relevant to understand how inhalant use has evolved into the complex social practice and also undergraduate students life. To evaluate this questions we developed a questionnaire to investigate the solvent consumption and the relationship of these with the use of alcohol in undergraduate students from the city of São Paulo, Brazil, covering samples from the north, south, east, west and center regions. The study sample comprised 907 undergraduate students.

METHODOLOGY

The instrument used for data collection was a questionnaire with 25 items in Google Forms™ format. The instant addition of responses to the data set makes this medium appealing for research purposes. Additionally, the respondents involved in the study have been regularly using Google Forms™, and it was therefore considered the most appropriate method for data collection. The results of the survey were statistically analyzed. Within the various areas the group of students from medical, biology, nurse, engineering, architect, psychology, and other courses, were chosen had experience of using these tools.

RESULTS

Data obtained showed that in a sample of 907 students, 11.13% have already used inhalants and only 9.9% of them do not consume alcohol, although everyone has already tried it. Regarding frequency of use: 10% use only once a semester, 10% use 2 to 3 times a week and 80% used only once. About the population who use solvents and who do not consume alcohol, the first time they experienced alcohol was mainly before 13 (30%) and at 15 (30%). In this same group, the first time they tried drugs was mainly after the age of 18 (40%). Of the 101 undergraduates who reported having used solvents, 91 consume alcohol (90.09%). Of these, 40.65% stated that alcohol use had no relation to drug use. Thus, 59.35% stated that alcohol use was related to drug use.

CONCLUSIONS

The hallucinatory effects of inhalant use are pleasurable, have a low cost, ease of availability, convenient packaging, rapidity of mood alteration and legal, explain almost partially the incidence of use for these students. Additionally, those who use need little money, require few contacts and take relatively low risks in relation to the law when experimenting, but suggest that volatile solvent use, even experimentation, is an early indicator of possible problematic drug use. Intervention programs for regular volatile solvent users should be based on treatment principles for alcohol and other drugs. This work was conducted in accordance with the ethical standards of the responsible committee on human experimentation (institutional and national) and with the Helsinki Declaration. CAAE(Br)67881517.1.0000.5511. All participants had full understanding and signed informed consent document.

This abstract is from the Experimental Biology 2018 Meeting. There is no full text article associated with this abstract published in The FASEB Journal.