Volatile Substance Misuse Among Street Children in Upper Egypt

Abstract

This work assessed the extent, patterns, attitudes, motivations, and impacts of volatile substance misuse (VSM) among street children in Upper Egypt. In 2009, a 36-item questionnaire was administered to a randomly selected sample of 120 street children aged 10–18 years. Nearly 91% (n = 109) reported misusing products containing volatile substances because they are inexpensive, legal, and easy to acquire. Familial neglect and lack of supervision were the main social motivations reported by street youth for misusing volatile substances. One-third (34.2%, n = 41) reported inhaling “Kolla,” a commercial glue; this study identifies its physicochemical, neuropharmacological, and toxicological properties. The study's limitations are noted.

Keywords :

• inhalants
• volatile substance misuse
• street children
• glue
• toluene
• adolescents
• Egypt

THE AUTHORS

Alaaeldin Elkoussi joined the Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology, Faculty of Medicine, Assiut University, after receiving his Ph.D. degree in Pharmacology in 1976. He served as the Chairman of the department from 1996 to 1999 and again from 2005 to 2007. From 1982 to 1994, he was a Postdoctoral Fellow, Visiting Research Scientist, and Senior Research Scientist in Drug Design and Delivery and Drug Discovery at the University of Florida. He received a 2002–2003 Hubert H. Humphrey Fellowship in Substance Abuse at Johns Hopkins University. He was the Principal Investigator for “Street Children and their Impact on Development in Upper Egypt” from 2005 to 2009. His teaching experience includes graduate and postgraduate courses on drug and substance abuse and lectures for the supreme council of prevention, control, and treatment of substance abuse. He has published more than 40 research articles; some of them are concerned with the pharmacokinetics of opioid antagonists and pharmacology of substances of misuse. He currently supervises two master's theses concerned with the pharmacology and toxicology of an Egyptian abused glue called “Kolla.”

Sayed H. Bakheet earned his Ph.D. degree in criminal sociology in 1997 and in the following year, he became an Assistant Professor in the Department of Sociology, College of Arts, Assiut University. He has published six research articles on street children, criminal sociology, and substance abuse among street children, as well as other publications in anthropology and economical sociology. He lectures for the supreme council of prevention, control, and treatment of substance misuse.