Solvent Abuse - Initiation and Frequency of Use

Initiation to Solvent Abuse

The peak age of initiation to use of solvents is 14, with most first trying solvents between ages 12 and 18, although 10% first experiment after age 18.

Fig 1 - Solvent Initiation/Age curves

Amalgamated data from IDMU Regular Users Surveys collected in 1994, 1997 & 1998

Total sample size n=3623

Key - Red data represents cumulative numbers of respondents ever having used solvents by the stated age

Green data represents the number of respondents reporting first having used solvents at the stated age.

Prevalence and Frequency of Use

In all the IDMU surveys, consistently, the vast majority of drug users report never having used solvents and of those who have, the majority have used experimentally (defined as on less than 10 occasions) or to have stopped using solvents altogether.

The majority of non-solvent users state they would never consider trying solvents, and solvents generally have a highly negative rating (overall - 1.49/10) by users of illicit drugs.

Frequency of Solvent Use among Illicit Drug Users
Frequency of use	1984	1994	1997	1998
Non/ex-users	89.6%	89.4%	89.4%	89.5%
Experimental	6.1%	8.0%	6.9%	8.2%
Occasional	1.3%	2.3%	3.3%	2.2%
Weekly	0.2%	0.2%	0.1%	0%
Daily	0%	0.3%	0.3%	0.2%
Mean rating (0-10)	n/a	1.50	1.82	1.24
Sample size	607	1333	1136	1153

Fig 2

Reference Source:

Atha MJ, Blanchard S & Davis S (1999) - Regular Users I-III - Solvents Initiation & Frequency of Use.

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