MDMA is also closely related to the amphetamine family because it can result in a variety of acute psychiatric disturbances, including panic, anxiety, depression, and paranoid thinking. MDMA has been shown to destroy serotonin-producing neurons in animals. These neurons play a direct role in regulating aggression, mood, sexual activity, sleep, and sensitivity to pain. MDMA has also been reported to cause jaw clenching, tremor, and hallucinations. Although people are exposed to volatile solvents and other inhalants in the home and in the workplace, many do not think of inhalable substances as drugs because most of them were never meant to be used in that way.
Inhalants fall into the categories of solvents or gases , of which nitrites are a subcategory.
Research suggests that chronic or long-term inhalant abusers are among the most difficult to treat and they may experience multiple psychological and social problems. Although different in makeup, nearly all abused inhalants produce effects similar to anesthetics, which act to slow down the body's functions. Intoxication can last only a few minutes or several hours if inhalants are taken repeatedly. Sniffing highly concentrated amounts of the chemicals in solvents or aerosol sprays can directly induce heart failure and death. High concentrations of inhalants also cause death from suffocation by displacing oxygen in the lungs and then in the central nervous system so that breathing ceases .Other irreversible effects caused by inhaling solvents include hearing loss, peripheral neuropathies or limb spasms, central nervous system or brain damage, and bone marrow damage.