Inhalants that are employed recreationally include nitrous oxide and ethyl ether, both of which have been so used for over a century, as well as more recent additions such as antifreeze, paint thinner, and toluene and other industrial solvents. All of these inhalants produce a large number of harmful effects including memory loss and irreversible neurological damage. Other recreational inhalants are butyl nitrite and amyl nitrate (also known as poppers) which have the effect of dilating blood vessels and are sometimes inhaled as a means of intensifying and prolonging sexual orgasm. Inhalation is particularly popular form of ingesting drugs of abuse because "the more rapidly the drug reaches the brain, the more intense the effect" (Leavitt, 1995, p. 37). Other abused drugs such as nicotine, opium, phencyclidine (PCP), crack cocaine, and marijuana are also inhaled.
Aside from citing the loss of short-term memory and neurological damage Leavitt does not specify what the "many harmful effects" caused by all of these inhalants are (p. 55).
The effects of inhaling this group of drugs are pleasurable enough that nonhuman primates have been found to "self-administer toluene" (Leavitt, 1995, p. 318). Thus it seems likely that teenaged users of inhalants such as toluene employ the drug for some of the principal reasons for drug abuse cited by Leavitt: the reduction of negative affect (relief from boredom, anxiety, tension, depression or sadness); or social cohesion (peer pressure, widespread use among age cohort, facilitation of social relations). Since toluene abuse appears to occur mainly among adolescents, who have considerably less control over their environments than adults, psychotherapists might choose either the learning model or the self-medication model as a starting point for eliminating the habit rather than the social model. Yet the social model, with its emphasis on peer influences, may also be important since desire...