Epidemiology of Inhalant Abuse - Archives - National Institute on ...

In 1990, a World Health Organization cross-national survey was
conducted in Hungary and 10 other countries among 6th, 8th, and 10th
graders. This survey showed that peer groups serve as important influences
in Hungarian adolescents’ lives (Coles and King 1992). In the pilot
survey in Hungary, the percentage <strong>of</strong> students with positive peer
influence seems to be much higher, compared to those with negative peer
influence. The lifetime prevalence data show that very few students had
tried illegal drugs. This is in contrast to those findings reported by Racz
(1992) in which a substantial proportion <strong>of</strong> youth were involved in using
inhalants and other drugs. Racz’s (1992) sample consisted <strong>of</strong> counterculture
youths. Only 32 percent <strong>of</strong> his group were students, while all in
this sample were students. Student involvement in a counterculture group
was not ascertained, so the sampling appraisal itself might explain the
disparity in rates <strong>of</strong> drug use between the two studies. Racz’s (1992)
results support the peer cluster theory (Oetting et al. 1986, 1987a,
1987b), which assumes that the counterculture youth who remain
connected to society through family and school are much less likely to
use drugs.
BARANYA COUNTY, PECS CITY
Baranya County is located in the southwestern part <strong>of</strong> Hungary and is
home to 417,000 inhabitants. The capital <strong>of</strong> the county, Pecs, has
215,000 residents. This is a multiethnic county, where 40 percent <strong>of</strong> the
population are German, 25 percent are Serbs and Croats, 5 percent are
gypsies, and the remainder are Slovaks, Slovenes, and Romanians. The
county considers itself disadvantaged not only because <strong>of</strong> ethnic
problems but also because unemployment is very high. Once this was the
center <strong>of</strong> the coal industry, and currently mines are closed.
A drug outpatient clinic was opened in 1987 in Pecs, and it has data on its
clients since that time. 1 The number <strong>of</strong> registered drug users in 1987
increased from 196 to 355 by the end <strong>of</strong> 1992. The new admissions
peaked in 1988 (from 27 in 1987 to 61 in 1988) and then decreased to 22
in 1991 and 33 in 1992. Social workers and a network <strong>of</strong> human service
workers serve as an “alarm system” for the community; that is, they visit
families, schools, and workplaces to find problem youth. It probably is
due to this system that the drug center has so many inhalant abusers. Out
<strong>of</strong> the total number <strong>of</strong> clients, 75 percent are inhalant abusers, with little
education (3-4 grades completed in elementary school), and 75 percent
are males. Seventy-five percent live in urban and 25 percent in rural
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