Misusing Volatile Substances for Their Hallucinatory Effects: A Qualitative Pilot Study With Mexican Teenagers and a Pharmacological Discussion of Their Hallucinations

Abstract

This work describes the solvent-induced hallucinatory experiences of 10 male and seven female teenagers in Mexico City from 1998 to 2000. The youth were recruited from public schools through a combined snowball and convenience sampling procedure. Inclusion criteria were: 13-18 years of age, school attendance, living with family, and weekly toluene-based solvent misuse. Interested students were interviewed and transcripts were analyzed. Hallucinations and illusions were common, including changes in color perception, visual, somatic, auditory, and tactile hallucinations. Some users described their hallucinatory experience as being able to be shared by a group and modulated by their environment. The pharmacological linkages with hallucinations are discussed. The study's limitations are noted.

Las aportaciones de 40 años de investigación epidemiológica en México sobre consumo de solventes inhalables

“…[14][15][16][17][18] Los trabajos con enfoque epidemiológico realizados en nuestro país, respecto al consumo de solventes han permitido identificar las características del consumo en poblaciones consideradas de alto riesgo como son los grupos marginales, los integrantes de bandas juveniles, los niños en situación de calle, los adultos y los menores recluidos en centros de detención, las sexoservidoras, las personas que acuden a solicitar tratamiento, los estudiantes y la población general. 14,[18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25] …”

“…Otra aportación relevante de los estudios es que han permitido identificar a los grupos en mayor riesgo de consumir estas sustancias: grupos marginales, integrantes de bandas juveniles, niños en situación de calle, adultos y menores recluidos en centros de detención, sexoservidoras, entre otros. 14,[18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25] Destaca también que los hombres menores de 14 años constituyen el grupo de mayor riego, principalmente los que han trabajado y provienen de niveles socio-económicos bajos y cuyo jefe de familia tiene baja escolaridad, que tienen al menos un familiar consumidor, que se encuentran en áreas de alta disponibilidad de la sustancia y que conviven con amigos que las consumen. 37,46,47 Los hallazgos permiten delinear un perfil general de los individuos en riesgo, lo cual es fundamental para el desarrollo de programas de prevención y tratamiento, que integren las necesidades específicas de los consumidores potenciales y de quienes ya han iniciado el consumo.…”

Activo distribution and paraphernalia among “street children”

“…As can be seen, activo has become the drug of choice for all these sectors (Cruz & Domínguez, 2011;Villatoro, Cruz, Ortiz & Medina-Mora, 2011).…”

Challenges to Neuroscience and Public Policy Derived from New Trends and Patterns of Inhalant Misuse

“…In conducting inhalant misuse research it is worth taking into account the invisibility of the problem: the high proportion of hidden populations involved in this practice (see, e.g., [13]), the lack of records that hinder the opportunity to register deaths attributable to inhalation [9], and the paucity of reliable data in terms of age and gender differences [33].…”

“…The objective is to review existing evidence and challenges for prevention, treatment, and policymaking that can be addressed on the bases of knowledge derived from epidemiology, including a discussion of findings based on what we know from neurosciences and social research. [59,60,61], school surveys [58,62], special population studies [13,22,23,47], and statistics from patients in treatment [53].…”