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

FIGURE 8. Trend and pattern <strong>of</strong> drug abuse between 1975 and
1986.
SOURCE: Szeged Mental Health Center for Adolescents, Hungary
(unpublished data, 1987).
readily available. This condition has been worsened by civil war in the
former Yugoslavia and as the East-West drug route crossed Hungary with
growing supplies <strong>of</strong> drugs.
Hungary lacks reliable epidemiologic data on drug abuse. The objective
<strong>of</strong> this chapter has been to draw attention to the need for epidemiologic
research by gathering and analyzing information from available sources,
in order to review the drug abuse situation and to highlight areas where
further research is needed.
From both general and regional studies, it can be seen that inhalant abuse
is not the current primary drug abuse problem in Hungary. The trend has
never been tracked consistently, but available information shows that
with a few exceptions only small groups were concerned and that there
has been geographic diversity. This was the first drug abuse phenomenon
that directed the attention <strong>of</strong> a few clinicians to the problem. The first
studies conducted in the mid-1970s in Budapest and Szeged showed that
glue sniffing occurred among the young and poorly educated with
dysfunctional family backgrounds. Gyor in 1981 and 1982 is an example
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