NIDA grants will improve knowledge about inhalant abuse

In 2001, approximately 2 million youths between the ages of 12 and 17 reported that they had tried inhalants at some time in their lives. While inhalant abuse is one of the most prevalent drug problems among young people in the United States, relatively little research has been conducted on inhalant abuse.

To help remedy this lack of knowledge, the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) has awarded more than $2 million to fund seven grants focusing on issues related to inhalant abuse.

"Inhalants are widely abused by youngsters due to their easy accessibility through household products, as well as their low cost," says NIDA Acting Director Dr. Glen R. Hanson. "Furthermore, inhalant drug abuse poses definite dangers to the health of young children, including cognitive, neurological and physiological disorders, and the threat of sudden death, yet there is a severe paucity of research-based information about the problem." he adds.

The new research will focus on:

The epidemiology of inhalant abuse--the nature and extent of inhalant abuse, who is abusing them, and why, and the abuse of different types of inhalants in different age groups;
Individual risk and protective factors related to the initiation of inhalant use;
The effects of maternal inhalant abuse on the developing fetus; and
The health consequences of inhalant abuse.

Awards were made to the following investigators:

Ty Ridenuor, Washington University, Saint Louis, Missouri, Inhalant Abuse and Dependence;
Diana H. Fishbein, RTI, Research Triangle Park, North Carolina, Precursors, Insulators, and Consequences of Inhalant Use;
Diana J. Walker, University of Chicago, A Model of Inhalant Abuse Using Inhalant Responders;
Samuel J. Gately, Brookhaven National Laboratory, Upton, New York, Feto-Maternal Pharmacokinetics of Abused Inhalants;
Ruth W. Edwards, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, Colorado, Inhalant Use Among Rural Children: A Multicultural Study;
Ho-Leung Fung, State University of New York at Buffalo, Toxicokinetics and Toxicodynamics of Nitrite Inhalants; and
Matthew O. Howard, Washington University, Saint Louis, Missouri, Neuropsychiatric Impairment in Adolescent Inhalant Abusers.

These awards were made in response to a Request for Applications, "Inhalant Abuse: Supporting Broad-based Research Approaches," issued by NIDA in November 2001.

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