Users often experience weight loss and changes in personality. Encouraging adolescents to experience the natural highs that come from peer group activities rather than destructive, drug-induced highs should be an automatic for every clinician working with the age group. But if a provider senses an inhalant abuse problem, it's her professional responsibility to address it specifically. And don't hesitate to take the problem elsewhere. Despite the conditional confidentiality she offers her patients, Dr. Tuttle says she'd consider breaking it if a child showed signs of huffing.
Chances are good that the child who is huffing needs help quitting.
Depending on the amount of abuse that has occurred, inhalant abuse can be physically and psychologically addicting, with detoxification alone requiring 30 to 60 days. Afterward, therapy for dealing with the addiction can begin. Call for Education, Concern Most parents are familiar with inhalant abuse, but are unaware of the hold it seems to have on the current generation. They just don't think that their children would do that. That's why the American Academy of Pediatrics is calling on clinicians to help draw attention to the huffing problem.