A special issue of the Journal of Drug and Alcohol Research (Volume 3, 2014) features papers based on inhalant abuse research originally presented at a symposium during the 4th Meeting of the International Drug Abuse Research Society (IDARS), held in Mexico City April 15–19, 2013. The symposium, “Research on Inhalant Misuse: From Epidemiology to Epigenetics,” was sponsored by the NIDA International Program and organized and chaired by former NIDA INVEST fellow Silvia L. Cruz, Ph.D., Cinvestav, Mexico, and NIDA grantee John J. Woodward, Ph.D., Medical University of South Carolina. Drs. Cruz and Woodward also edited the special issue, which is available online at http://www.ashdin.com/journals/JDAR/special.issues/ANBA/. The papers focus on recent research advances and unanswered questions in five areas:
- The challenges new substances and patterns of inhalant abuse pose to neuroscience and public policy.
- Long-term behavioral consequences of prenatal binge toluene exposure in animal models.
- The molecular and behavioral actions of toluene, the most widely abused inhalant.
- Behavioral pharmacological data that allow comparisons of the abuse liability of different inhalants.
- The neural effects of toluene on the mesolimbic dopaminergic system.