Twelve adolescent males with a history of chronic solvent abuse were compared with 12 delinquent controls on a battery of neuropsychological tests. Toluene was the active constituent most commonly abused. Solvent abusers tended to have lower overall intelligence test scores. On the Bexley Maudsley Automated Screening Test, the solvent abusers scored significantly lower on tests involving visual processing, especially the Symbol Digit Coding test. These results are cautiously interpreted as indicating that chronic solvent abuse carries an increased risk of cognitive impairment.
Twelve adolescent males with a history of chronic solvent abuse were compared with 12 delinquent controls on a structured interview concerning their history of solvent abuse, drug and alcohol abuse, and on a self-report inventory of depression. Solvent abusers had histories of severe social and emotional deprivation, and reported higher rates of depression. This was particularly true of the most chronic abusers of solvents. These findings do not reflect any referral bias and it is concluded that the association between chronic solvent abuse and depression is a real one. Psychological, social work and psychiatric services need to take the presentation of chronic solvent abuse more seriously.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.