Trends in Volatile Substance Abuse

The purpose of this article is to evaluate whether social, geographic, and demographic factors have a relationship to trends in volatile substance abuse. Two datasets were obtained. Dataset 1 was all patients reported to U.S. poison centers with inhalation abuse of a non-pharmaceutical substance between 2000 and 2005. Dataset 2 was annual data from the U.S. Dept of Labor and U.S. Census Bureau for each of the 50 states for the years 2000 through 2005 for unemployment rate, population density, poverty rate, high school graduation rate and percentage of population with bachelor degree. The two datasets were compared for geographic (by state) and temporal (by year) relationships using U.S. government demographic categories. The U.S. poison centers state that 12,428 patients with volatile substance abuse have been reported over the 6 year period of 2000-2005, with a mean of 2,071 patients annually. A strong negative trend was found between volatile substance abuse and population density, with volatile substance abuse increasing as population density decreased. This trend remained consistent over the 6 years of evaluation. A negative trend was found with percentage of population with a bachelor's degree and volatile substance abuse. No trend was found when comparing volatile substance abuse and poverty rate, unemployment rate, or high school graduation rate. Volatile substance abuse appears to increase as population density decreases, following a previously suggested relationship with a rural setting. Volatile substance abuse appears to increase as percentage of population with a bachelor's degree decreases.