NEU 365W Lecture Notes - Lecture 11: Anabolic Steroid, Hearing Loss, Partition Coefficient
Document Summary
Youths, low self-esteem, poor socio-economic background, disrupted living conditions, poor family relations, academic problems, exposure to substance-abusing peers. Easy access to cheap compounds - i. e. gas. Psychoactive agents with diverse chemical structures (large group of compounds) - all produce similar behavioral phenotypes. Rank 4th (in young) behind alcohol, marijuana and tobacco in incidence of abuse in us. 9% of 8th graders, 6% of 10th graders, 5% of 12th graders. ~7% of those older than 12 have tried (~20 million) Greatest among hispanic and native american youths (12-17 year olds) w/ percentage use dropping as kids age from grades 8 12. Kids this young use inhalants because it"s easily accessible: white out, glue, gas, cool-whip, etc. Appeals to youngsters: inexpensive, legal, readily available. Some compounds that are banned are used in more normal products which allows for them to still be abused. Volatile solvents found in cleaning fluids, nail-polish removers, paints, fuels and adhesives.
