The extent of solvent abuse in a regional secure unit sample

Because of concern over the increasing number of teenage boys being admitted to secure facilities with a background of solvent abuse this study set out to compare such boys with a sample drawn from a drop-in youth centre. It was discovered that the secure unit boys were more likely to have habitually abused solvents than their youth centre counterparts. However their drinking and smoking habits were similar. A measure of neuropsychiatric and psychosomatic symptoms showed that the "sniffers" had a higher mean score than "non-sniffers" in the secure unit--although the difference was not statistically significant. Sniffing was associated with heightened emotions, with approximately half the "sniffers" associating sniffing with pleasant feelings and the other half with unpleasant experiences. It was suggested that those who construe sniffing positively are more likely to have socially determined reasons for abuse, whereas those who construe it negatively may have psychologically determined reasons. Finally, results from a Delinquency Implications Matrix suggested that sniffing was viewed as part of a delinquent syndrome and not as a discrete activity by the boys concerned.