A
prospective study of neurocognitive changes 15 years after chronic
inhalant abuse
Due to their wide availability and
relatively low cost, inhalants are widely used throughout the world,
with 793,000 persons in the United States over the age of 12
admitting to using inhalants for the first time with in the previous
12 months. Inhalant use produces short-term
feelings of euphoria and sedation, and has been associated with
decline in cognitive function. While inhalant use tapers off markedly
after the age of 14, questions have been ranged about the potential
long term damage caused by inhalants.
An Australian study published in the
journal Addiction follows up on a previous cohort study in 1994
showing that neurological and cognitive deficits as a result of
central nervous system disruption from chronic inhalant use exhibited
recovery following two years of abstinence. Participants from two
remote Aboriginal communities in Australia evaluated in the previous
study were selected, yielding a control group, a group of ex-chronic
petrol abusers never hospitalized with lead encephalopathy, and a
group of ex-chronic petrol abusers who had been previously
hospitalized with lead encephalopathy.
The participants underwent a
standardized neurological examination and a blood sample was taken
from each. The results showed a complete reversible of cognitive and
neurological impairments as a result of chronic inhalant abuse within
fifteen years of abstinence, but only where no encephalopathy had
occurred. Participants who had been hospitalized for encephalopathy
continued to show persistent impairments, including permanent
disability impacting movement coordination. Their blood levels had
returned to levels within normal limits, but which were still twice
as high as that of the healthy controls. The long (10 years)
half-life of lead in the human body is suspected of contributing to
continued functional problems. The findings of the study overall
suggest some damage done by inhalant use is reversible, except in
cases where catastrophic central nervous system changes have occurred
as a result of lead encephalopathy, where it appears to be permanent.
Cairney,
S., O' Connor, N., Dingwall, K. M., Maruff, P., Shafiq-Antonacci, R.,
Currie, J. and Currie, B. J. (2013), A prospective study of
neurocognitive changes 15 years after chronic inhalant abuse.
Addiction, 108: 1107–1114. doi: 10.1111/add.12124
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