TEACHER’S EDITION Inhalants: A Looming Threat for All Teens

—A message from Dr. Nora D. Volkow, Director of NIDA Dear Teacher: I have an important warning to share abusing inhalants once or twice was In This Installment with you. Some of the most dangerous risky. substances abused by your students Monitoring the Future and other • How all inhalants are may be found in the home—and even studies indicate that inhalant abuse is poisonous chemical vapors. in schools. As a group, these toxic particularly prevalent among young substances are referred to as inhalants. teens. Some may abuse inhalants as a • How inhalants can cause a They are breathable chemical vapors substitute for alcohol because they can condition called sudden that produce mind-altering effects. be obtained easily. sniffing death. Abusers breathe in toxic fumes to This article, the second installment achieve a high. Substances that are in this year’s edition of Heads Up: Real • How inhalants can cause abused as inhalants include computer News About Drugs and Your Body, will damage to the whole cleaner, nail polish remover, glue, and a alert your students to the real dangers body—including death. host of other products that may seem of inhalant abuse and explain to them why the smart choice is never to try • Why teens need to learn inhalants—not even once. the facts. In addition to sharing this article with your classes, there is one other step you can take to keep your students safe from inhalants. Encourage school Coming Up in the officials and parents to store household Next Installment products carefully; they should be • Dangers of Prescription keenly aware of the temptations that these dangerous substances pose to Drug Abuse harmless because their intoxicating young people (as well as the danger of effects are so totally unconnected to accidental inhalation by very young their intended uses. children). Inhalants are anything but harmless. Thank you for devoting a portion of They are dangerous poisons that can your valuable classroom time to Assessment Quiz kill in an instant. And I am troubled to sharing this key message about report that the use of inhalants is on inhalants with your students. As ever, Use the Activity 1 the upswing among young people— we deeply appreciate your willingness Reproducible within as an bucking the overall trend of decreasing to play a vital role in NIDA’s mission: Assessment Quiz to drug abuse among teens. NIDA’s most helping young people everywhere determine your students’ recent Monitoring the Future study, an understand the risks of drugs and the core base of knowledge and annual survey of youth drug abuse, damage they can cause. found a significant increase in the to test what they’ve learned Sincerely, number of 8th-graders saying they had about inhalants. tried inhalants at least once. Not only that: more than 66 percent of students Nora D. Volkow, M.D. in this age group didn’t think that Director of NIDA

For printable past and current articles in the HEADS UP series, as well as activities and teaching support, go to www.drugabuse.gov/parent-teacher.html or www.scholastic.com/HEADSUP. I

FROM SCHOLASTIC AND THE SCIENTISTS OF THE NATIONAL INSTITUTE ON DRUG ABUSE, NATIONAL INSTITUTES OF HEALTH, U.S. DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES Lesson Plans for Student Activities PREPARATION: Before beginning the lessons, make these photocopies: Two copies for each student of Activity 1 Reproducible for a pre-reading and post-reading quiz, and one copy for each student of Activity 2 Reproducible.

Lesson 1 Heads Up: What Do You Know About Inhalants and Their Dangers? OBJECTIVE really are. Why might that be? their knowledge. Give them a To give students science-based facts • Tell students that they are going to second copy of Activity 1 about inhalants; to educate students find out how much they know Reproducible. Tell them to write about the ways in which inhalants can about inhalants and what the latest their names on the paper and label damage the brain and body, research is teaching us about them. it No. 2. When students have sometimes causing death; to help Distribute copies of Activity 1 finished, collect the papers, score students understand that trying Reproducible. Tell students to write them, and compare the results. inhalants even once can be dangerous their names on the paper and label Share the results with students or even deadly; and to assess students’ it No. 1. Then have them answer before and after the lesson. knowledge of the topics before and the questions. Collect and grade WRAP-UP the papers. after reading the article “Poison • Conclude the lesson by asking Vapors: The Truth About Inhalants.” READING, DISCUSSION, AND students what they think might be NATIONAL SCIENCE ASSESSMENT the most effective way to inform EDUCATION STANDARDS • Have students read the article young people about the dangers of Life Science; Science in Personal “Poison Vapors: The Truth About inhalants. Ask them if they think and Social Perspective Inhalants.” Next, hold a discussion products that are abused as based on these questions: What are inhalants should carry warning LESSON STRATEGY the key dangers of inhalant abuse? labels, or if it should be against the Introducing the Topic Why do you think many young teens law to sell products like computer • Before the lesson begins, hold a don’t understand the risks of inhalants? cleaner to young people. class discussion based on these Does the fact that many inhalants have Brainstorm ways that your class questions: What are inhalants? How innocent purposes, such as cleaning, could spread the word about the can they damage the body and brain? make them seem less dangerous? risks of abusing inhalants. Surveys show that some teens think • Next, tell students it’s time to find ANSWERS TO QUIZ QUESTIONS: inhalants are less dangerous than they out how much they’ve increased 1. b; 2. b; 3. b; 4. d; 5. d; 6. d; 7. a; 8. c; 9. a; 10. c. Lesson 2 Heads Up: Learning How Inhalants Become Drugs of Addiction OBJECTIVE Based on what they’ve already • Wrap up the lesson by discussing the Students use scientific data to draw learned about inhalants from the following questions: How does the conclusions about the effects of article, ask students the following: flood of dopamine in the brain that toluene (a toxic component of many Why do you think inhalants can be toluene apparently causes seem to affect inhalants) on brain chemistry, classified as a drug of addiction? the behavior of individual people who behavior, and motor activity; students • Next, explain that students are going abuse inhalants? Based on this learn that the chemicals in inhalant to read about an experiment in experiment, what might happen to vapors can lead to addiction. which researchers tested rats to find toluene abusers’ behavior if you gave out how their brains and bodies them a drug that blocked dopamine NATIONAL SCIENCE EDUCATION from getting to the NAc? What would STANDARDS respond to an inhalant component called toluene. (The experiment is you need to know before you could Science as Inquiry; Science in described in Activity 2 Reproducible.) recommend such treatment? Personal and Social Perspective If the brain and body respond in the ANSWERS TO REPRODUCIBLE 2: LESSON STRATEGY same way that they do to many other 1. Question part one: Dopamine acts on the Introducing the Topic drugs of abuse, this will show that brain to allow people to feel pleasure and toluene may cause addictive behavior motivation, and helps control motor • Begin by sharing with students the in a similar way. The brain chemical coordination. Question part two: Taking drugs definition below of drug addiction, tested in the experiment was that make the brain produce unnaturally high taken from the article “Drug dopamine because of its key levels of dopamine can throw off the brain’s Addiction Is a Disease: Why the own ability to produce it. Abusers may then involvement in feelings of pleasure become addicted and unable to experience Teen Brain Is Vulnerable,” and motivation, as well as in motor www.scholastic.com/headsup. (You pleasure without the drug. 2. Scientists knew coordination. Ask students why and amphetamine caused roaming by flooding the may want to provide this entire how they think drugs are able to change NAc with dopamine. They knew that article to students as back-up.) the way people behave. How do inhalants scopolamine caused similar behavior through Drug addiction: A chronic affect abusers’ behavior? a different mechanism. They wanted to compare toluene—which they knew caused relapsing disease that is READING, DISCUSSION, AND roaming—to see which category it fell into. characterized by compulsive WRAP-UP 3. Question part one: That inhalants may drug-seeking and abuse and change abusers’ brains so that the only way to long-lasting chemical changes • Hand out Activity 2 Reproducible. feel pleasure is to continue inhaling. Question in the brain. Have students read the sheet and part two: Scientists can figure out ways to answer the questions at the end. restore brain chemistry to normal. II

FROM SCHOLASTIC AND THE SCIENTISTS OF THE NATIONAL INSTITUTE ON DRUG ABUSE, NATIONAL INSTITUTES OF HEALTH, U.S. DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES STUDENT ACTIVITY 1 REPRODUCIBLE

Heads Up: Inhalants—A Quiz

Test your knowledge of inhalants. Choose the correct answer to each question.

1. Most inhalants are 5. The inhalant nitrous 8. Benzene, a toxic actually intended to be oxide can rob the body component of gasoline a. prescription drugs. of ______, causing fumes, can cause death. aplastic anemia, an b. household and office a. blood often fatal disease of products. the b. essential vitamins c. painkillers. a. liver. c. dopamine d. cold medicine. b. lungs. d. oxygen c. blood. 2. How do inhalants wind d. brain. up in abusers’ 6. Which of the following is bloodstreams? not a risk of inhalant a. Abusers inject them. abuse? 9. When toxins from a. hearing loss inhalants stay in the b. Abusers breathe them in. body for a long time, c. Abusers take them in pill b. blackouts they are stored in form. c. sudden sniffing death a. fatty tissue. d. All of the above. d. none of the above b. muscle tissue. c. the inner ear. 3. Some inhalants are 7. Toluene, a chemical d. the stomach. safer than others. found in many inhalants, can cause muscle a. true spasms, tremors, and 10. A recent survey found b. false hearing loss. It does so that more than ______by breaking down of 8th-graders didn’t realize that regular 4. Which of the following a. a nerve coating called use of inhalants is organs or body systems myelin. harmful. can be seriously b. a section of the inner ear a. 2 percent damaged by inhalant called the cochlea. abuse? b. 8 percent c. the brain’s balance center. a. the nervous system (brain, c. 38 percent spinal cord, and nerves) d. nerve cells in the nose. d. 66 percent b. the heart c. the liver d. all of the above

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FROM SCHOLASTIC AND THE SCIENTISTS OF THE NATIONAL INSTITUTE ON DRUG ABUSE, NATIONAL INSTITUTES OF HEALTH, U.S. DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES STUDENT ACTIVITY 2 REPRODUCIBLE

Heads Up: Learning How Inhalants Become Drugs of Addiction

Among the known risks of inhalants are severe brain damage, physical disabilities, and even death. In addition to these risks, new scientific evidence points to how inhalants also act upon the brain like other drugs of addiction. Recently, two NIDA-sponsored researchers at the University of Arizona in Tucson studied how rats are affected by toluene—a chemical found in many inhalants, including gasoline, spray paint, and glue. If the scientists could show that toluene’s effects on the brain are similar to those of other drugs of addiction, it would help them figure out how to battle inhalant abuse. Read about the experiment, then answer the questions below. The Experiment: A Change in Dopamine Levels Is Behind a Toluene-Induced Behavior Change BACKGROUND (NAc for short). The NAc is sometimes called the Researchers Art Riegel and Edward French knew that brain’s pleasure center, and dopamine is sometimes when toluene was given to rats, it caused increased called the pleasure chemical. motor activity, known as “roaming.” The researchers Dopamine is a naturally occurring brain chemical wanted to see whether this behavioral change in the that is important for pleasure, motivation, and motor rats’ motor activity resulted from heightened activity. When people take drugs that cause the brain dopamine activity in their brains’ pleasure center. to produce unnaturally large quantities of dopamine, It was known that some drugs that cause roaming it can throw off the brain’s own ability to produce this and feelings of extreme pleasure—including the drug chemical. Drug abusers become unable to feel amphetamine—do so by increasing dopamine in a pleasure without taking drugs. This is the start of the region of the brain called the nucleus accumbens disease known as addiction.

DESCRIPTION of their brains. If the dopamine-blocked rats showed To test whether the increased roaming in rats that roaming activities, scientists would know it couldn’t were given toluene is related to dopamine activity, the be caused by dopamine in the NAc. researchers compared toluene’s effects on two groups Next, scientists injected the two groups with three of rats. One group was made up of ordinary lab rats. drugs: toluene, amphetamine (which acts through The other group had a procedure done so that dopamine in the NAc), and scopolamine (which dopamine was blocked from reaching the NAc region induces roaming, but not through dopamine).

RESULTS roaming response to scopolamine was the same as • As the scientists expected, the normal rats showed in the normal rats. increased roaming when given toluene, • “The findings put inhalants squarely in the same amphetamine, or scopolamine. category as other drugs of abuse, suggesting that a • The dopamine-blocked rats reacted differently. similar mechanism of action is involved,” explained Their roaming response to toluene was 55 percent Dr. Riegel. “There is a strong likelihood that they less than in normal rats given toluene. Their are highly addictive substances and that some of the roaming response to amphetamine was 67 percent same strategies that work for other addictions may less than in normal rats given amphetamine. Their effectively combat inhalant abuse as well.”

YOU’RE THE SCIENTIST Now imagine that you’re a scientist trying to understand and interpret this experiment. Answer the following questions. 1. What does dopamine do in our brains in its 3. What do you think the results say about why natural state? How can the dopamine system be people might repeatedly abuse inhalants even when damaged by drugs of abuse? they know they are dangerous? How can scientists 2. Can you think of a reason why the researchers use this information to help inhalant abusers? injected the rats not only with toluene, but with amphetamine and scopolamine, too?

IV Study adapted from www.drugabuse.gov/NIDA_notes/NNvol19N5/Dopamine.html.

FROM SCHOLASTIC AND THE SCIENTISTS OF THE NATIONAL INSTITUTE ON DRUG ABUSE, NATIONAL INSTITUTES OF HEALTH, U.S. DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES