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Altered Brain Developmental Trajectories in Adolescents After Initiating Drinking.

ABSTRACT: OBJECTIVE:The authors sought evidence for altered adolescent brain growth trajectory associated with moderate and heavy alcohol use in a large national, multisite, prospective study of adolescents before and after initiation of appreciable alcohol use. METHOD:This study examined 483 adolescents (ages 12-21) before initiation of drinking and 1 and 2 years later. At the 2-year assessment, 356 participants continued to meet the study's no/low alcohol consumption entry criteria, 65 had initiated moderate drinking, and 62 had initiated heavy drinking. MRI was used to quantify regional cortical and white matter volumes. Percent change per year (slopes) in adolescents who continued to meet no/low criteria served as developmental control trajectories against which to compare those who initiated moderate or heavy drinking. RESULTS:In no/low drinkers, gray matter volume declined throughout adolescence and slowed in many regions in later adolescence. Complementing gray matter declines, white matter regions grew at faster rates at younger ages and slowed toward young adulthood. Youths who initiated heavy drinking exhibited an accelerated frontal cortical gray matter trajectory, divergent from the norm. Although significant effects on trajectories were not observed in moderate drinkers, their intermediate position between no/low and heavy drinkers suggests a dose effect. Neither marijuana co-use nor baseline volumes contributed significantly to the alcohol effect. CONCLUSIONS:Initiation of drinking during adolescence, with or without marijuana co-use, disordered normal brain growth trajectories. Factors possibly contributing to abnormal cortical volume trajectories include peak consumption in the past year and family history of alcoholism.

SUBMITTER: Pfefferbaum A

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6504929 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Altered Brain Developmental Trajectories in Adolescents After Initiating Drinking.

Pfefferbaum Adolf A Kwon Dongjin D Brumback Ty T Thompson Wesley K WK Cummins Kevin K Tapert Susan F SF Brown Sandra A SA Colrain Ian M IM Baker Fiona C FC Prouty Devin D De Bellis Michael D MD Clark Duncan B DB Nagel Bonnie J BJ Chu Weiwei W Park Sang Hyun SH Pohl Kilian M KM Sullivan Edith V EV

The American journal of psychiatry 20171031 4

<h4>Objective</h4>The authors sought evidence for altered adolescent brain growth trajectory associated with moderate and heavy alcohol use in a large national, multisite, prospective study of adolescents before and after initiation of appreciable alcohol use.<h4>Method</h4>This study examined 483 adolescents (ages 12-21) before initiation of drinking and 1 and 2 years later. At the 2-year assessment, 356 participants continued to meet the study's no/low alcohol consumption entry criteria, 65 ha ...[more]

PMID: 29084454

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Project description:ImportanceMaturation of white matter fiber systems subserves cognitive, behavioral, emotional, and motor development during adolescence. Hazardous drinking during this active neurodevelopmental period may alter the trajectory of white matter microstructural development, potentially increasing risk for developing alcohol-related dysfunction and alcohol use disorder in adulthood.ObjectiveTo identify disrupted adolescent microstructural brain development linked to drinking onset and to assess whether the disruption is more pronounced in younger rather than older adolescents.Design, setting, and participantsThis case-control study, conducted from January 13, 2013, to January 15, 2019, consisted of an analysis of 451 participants from the National Consortium on Alcohol and Neurodevelopment in Adolescence cohort. Participants were aged 12 to 21 years at baseline and had at least 2 usable magnetic resonance diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) scans and up to 5 examination visits spanning 4 years. Participants with a youth-adjusted Cahalan score of 0 were labeled as no-to-low drinkers; those with a score of greater than 1 for at least 2 consecutive visits were labeled as heavy drinkers. Exploratory analysis was conducted between no-to-low and heavy drinkers. A between-group analysis was conducted between age- and sex-matched youths, and a within-participant analysis was performed before and after drinking.ExposuresSelf-reported alcohol consumption in the past year summarized by categorical drinking levels.Main outcomes and measuresDiffusion tensor imaging measurement of fractional anisotropy (FA) in the whole brain and fiber systems quantifying the developmental change of each participant as a slope.ResultsAnalysis of whole-brain FA of 451 adolescents included 291 (64.5%) no-to-low drinkers and 160 (35.5%) heavy drinkers who indicated the potential for a deleterious association of alcohol with microstructural development. Among the no-to-low drinkers, 142 (48.4%) were boys with mean (SD) age of 16.5 (2.2) years and 149 (51.2%) were girls with mean (SD) age of 16.5 (2.1) years and 192 (66.0%) were White participants. Among the heavy drinkers, 86 (53.8%) were boys with mean (SD) age of 20.1 (1.5) years and 74 (46.3%) were girls with mean (SD) age of 20.5 (2.0) years and 142 (88.8%) were White participants. A group analysis revealed FA reduction in heavy-drinking youth compared with age- and sex-matched controls (t154 = -2.7, P = .008). The slope of this reduction correlated with log of days of drinking since the baseline visit (r156 = -0.21, 2-tailed P = .008). A within-participant analysis contrasting developmental trajectories of youths before and after they initiated heavy drinking supported the prediction that drinking onset was associated with and potentially preceded disrupted white matter integrity. Age-alcohol interactions (t152 = 3.0, P = .004) observed for the FA slopes indicated that the alcohol-associated disruption was greater in younger than older adolescents and was most pronounced in the genu and body of the corpus callosum, regions known to continue developing throughout adolescence.Conclusions and relevanceThis case-control study of adolescents found a deleterious association of alcohol use with white matter microstructural integrity. These findings support the concept of heightened vulnerability to environmental agents, including alcohol, associated with attenuated development of major white matter tracts in early adolescence.

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Altered Brain Developmental Trajectories in Adolescents After Initiating Drinking.

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Altered Brain Developmental Trajectories in Adolescents After Initiating Drinking.

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