Question: What is the prevalence rate for intentional volatile solvent use/abuse among American adolescents?
Answer: According to the cited reference, “Abused inhalants are voluntarily inhaled for their euphorigenic effects by a surprisingly high proportion of American adolescents. According to the 2013 Monitoring the Future study, the 30-day prevalence rate for intentional volatile solvent use among American 8th graders, or mostly 12- to 14-year-olds, was 2.7%. This prevalence is higher than all usage rates for all other illicit drugs except marijuana, and this trend has held steady for the past two decades. Moreover, the true prevalence of solvent use may be higher due to incorrect self-reporting of inhalant use. To wit, in a longitudinal study, 49% of 7th graders who admitted to volatile solvent misuse recanted the following year, and the researchers predicted that the vast majority of recanters were actual solvent users. Volatile solvents are most commonly misused by young adolescents, with an age at peak use of 14 years.” (Beckley JT and Woodward JJ. Volatile solvents as drugs of abuse: Focus on the cortico-mesolimbic circuitry.2013 Neuropsychopharm 38:2555-2567)