Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

A Huff Equals a Puff
ScienceNOW Daily News ^ | 10 January 2007 | Rhitu Chatterjee

Posted on 01/21/2007 8:52:59 PM PST by neverdem

A Huff Equals a Puff

By Rhitu Chatterjee
ScienceNOW Daily News
10 January 2007

Sniffing, or huffing, glue, paint, cleaning fluids, and nail polish remover may appear relatively harmless, but it is physiologically no different from other forms of drug abuse. That's the conclusion of a new study that shows that toluene, the solvent in many of these inhaled substances, has the same effect on our brains as notorious drugs like cocaine and methamphetamine. The findings explain a long-standing mystery about the impact of this addictive substance on the brain and suggest ways of developing treatments for addiction.

Solvent abuse increases a person's desire for other drugs, boosts the risk of depression and suicide, and irreversibly damages the brain, heart, kidney, and liver. But the exact effect of solvents such as toluene on our brains has remained unclear. Unlike other drugs that target specific areas of the brain, solvents were thought to act on all brain regions. Then, in 2002, neurologist Stephen Dewey of Brookhaven National Laboratory, in Upton, New York, and colleagues showed that toluene homes in on brain areas such as the reward center, which includes two main structures, the ventral tegmental area (VTA,) and the nucleus accumbens (ACB). Drugs such as nicotine and cocaine activate a group of dopamine-producing neurons in the VTA. These neurons start firing and release dopamine--the brain's feel-good chemical--into the VTA and the ACB. Studies by neurophysiologist Arthur Riegel of the Oregon Health and Science University in Portland and his colleagues revealed that toluene also stimulates the neurons in the VTA to start firing. But no one was able to show whether it also induces them to release dopamine in the ACB or the VTA, leading some scientists to ask if toluene exerted its effects on the brain through a dopamine-independent pathway.

To get to the bottom of toluene's mechanism of action, Riegel, neurophysiologist Augustin Zapata of the National Institute on Drug Abuse in Baltimore, Maryland, and colleagues dunked rat brain slices in different concentrations of toluene and found that lower concentrations were more potent. Solutions of 1 micromolar or more no longer activated the neurons, explaining why solvents are most potent when inhaled in small quantities. Next, the scientists injected small amounts of toluene into the brains of live rats. Not only did it electrically activate the VTA, it also caused the same neurons to release dopamine into the VTA and ACB, proving that toluene action on the brain is similar to that of other drugs. The team reports its findings online today in Neuropsychopharmacology.

The study is "a really outstanding piece of work," says Dewey. It answers the fundamental question about inhalant abuse, he notes: namely, what is the direct effect of the substance on dopamine in the brain's reward center? Researchers should now investigate whether they can curb toluene addiction using compounds that block dopamine receptors, he says.

Related sites



TOPICS: Culture/Society; Extended News; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: drugabuse; health; science; toluene; wod
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-31 next last
The Abused Inhalant Toluene Increases Dopamine Release in the Nucleus Accumbens by Directly Stimulating Ventral Tegmental Area Neurons.
1 posted on 01/21/2007 8:53:01 PM PST by neverdem
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | View Replies]

To: neverdem

2 posted on 01/21/2007 8:57:36 PM PST by fieldmarshaldj (Cheney X -- Destroying the Liberal Democrat Traitors By Any Means Necessary -- Ya Dig ? Sho 'Nuff.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: neverdem

Fine.

If I can't make Gryffindor, I want in Ravenclaw.


3 posted on 01/21/2007 8:58:40 PM PST by NicknamedBob (My tuner doesn't have good taste the way it used to!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: neverdem
Sniffing, or huffing, glue, paint, cleaning fluids, and nail polish remover may appear relatively harmless Really?!? Often, when one of my friends stumbles over a word of says something crazy I ask them if they have been "huffing glue". I thought it was kind of a universal term and understood by most that it kills MASSIVE amounts of brain cells.
4 posted on 01/21/2007 9:06:54 PM PST by word_warrior_bob (You can now see my amazing doggie on my homepage!! Come say hello to Jake.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: word_warrior_bob

I think your dog would look better with glasses.

Think about it. It would definitely make him look more studious.


And if anybody asks, just say he reads too much.


5 posted on 01/21/2007 9:11:35 PM PST by NicknamedBob (My tuner doesn't have good taste the way it used to!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 4 | View Replies]

To: fieldmarshaldj

LMAO!


6 posted on 01/21/2007 9:14:20 PM PST by Kate of Spice Island (Jawn Eff Qari - what a maroon!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: NicknamedBob

Maybe like a pair of Mr Peabody glasses, he might like those.


7 posted on 01/21/2007 9:15:34 PM PST by word_warrior_bob (You can now see my amazing doggie on my homepage!! Come say hello to Jake.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 5 | View Replies]

To: neverdem

The study on drug effects on spiders needs to add toluene.
http://www.glumbert.com/media/spiders


8 posted on 01/21/2007 9:17:00 PM PST by posterchild (Spent some money on women and beer, the rest was just wasted.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: neverdem

9 posted on 01/21/2007 9:23:19 PM PST by uglybiker (AU-TO-MO-BEEEEEEEL?!!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: word_warrior_bob

I figure a pair of children's sunglasses, with the lenses removed would be the perfect size.

Inexpensive, too.


Then Jake would be a real chick magnet.


10 posted on 01/21/2007 9:23:21 PM PST by NicknamedBob (My tuner doesn't have good taste the way it used to!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 7 | View Replies]

To: neverdem

Time to outlaw paints and aerosols and etc etc. or at least put them behind the counter and make people sign for them when buying. We need to expand the War on Some Drugs to include these dangerous chemicals.


11 posted on 01/21/2007 9:28:46 PM PST by Sir Gawain
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Sir Gawain; neverdem
"Time to outlaw paints and aerosols and etc etc."

I'd prefeer that we outlaw stupidity, or at least increase the punishment.

12 posted on 01/21/2007 9:33:44 PM PST by NicknamedBob (My tuner doesn't have good taste the way it used to!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 11 | View Replies]

To: word_warrior_bob
"Sniffing, or huffing, glue, paint, cleaning fluids, and nail polish remover may appear relatively harmless"

That jumped out at me too. Even in my misspent youth my pals and I regarded sniffing as degenerate


13 posted on 01/21/2007 9:34:15 PM PST by I see my hands (_8(|)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 4 | View Replies]

To: Sir Gawain; neverdem

Hoping, of course, that typos don't count as stupidity.


14 posted on 01/21/2007 9:35:07 PM PST by NicknamedBob (My tuner doesn't have good taste the way it used to!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 12 | View Replies]

To: word_warrior_bob

So you got rid of the girlfriend and kept the dog. Smart choice.


15 posted on 01/21/2007 9:37:43 PM PST by Moonman62 (The issue of whether cheap labor makes America great should have been settled by the Civil War.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 7 | View Replies]

To: Kate of Spice Island

Looks like he picked the wrong week to stop sniffing glue.


16 posted on 01/21/2007 9:38:33 PM PST by fieldmarshaldj (Cheney X -- Destroying the Liberal Democrat Traitors By Any Means Necessary -- Ya Dig ? Sho 'Nuff.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 6 | View Replies]

To: neverdem
Sniffing, or huffing, glue, paint, cleaning fluids, and nail polish remover may appear relatively harmless...

Are you kidding me? That crap's nasty just to think about. Aerosols, too. If you absolutely must get high, kids, stick with stuff that's at least kinda sorta safe for human consumption.

17 posted on 01/21/2007 9:49:12 PM PST by RichInOC (...Phi Kappa Sigma, Beta Rho '87..."I won't go schizo, will I?" "It's a distinct possibility.")
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Moonman62

Works for me, back to sampling various delicacies.


18 posted on 01/21/2007 9:49:17 PM PST by word_warrior_bob (You can now see my amazing doggie on my homepage!! Come say hello to Jake.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 15 | View Replies]

To: fieldmarshaldj

Glad I didn't have a nice swill of coffee (or anything else) before reading your response.


19 posted on 01/21/2007 10:00:10 PM PST by Kate of Spice Island (Jawn Eff Qari - what a maroon!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 16 | View Replies]

To: El Gato; Ernest_at_the_Beach; Robert A. Cook, PE; lepton; LadyDoc; jb6; tiamat; PGalt; Dianna; ...
Barnyard Pharmaceuticals

NHTSA Probes Headlight Glare (38)

FReepmail me if you want on or off my health and science ping list.

20 posted on 01/21/2007 10:19:26 PM PST by neverdem (May you be in heaven a half hour before the devil knows that you're dead.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-31 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson