Dataset Information

Transition to drug co-use among adolescent cannabis users: The role of decision-making and mental health.

ABSTRACT: BACKGROUND:Co-use of cannabis and drugs other than cannabis (DOTC) influences the risk of experiencing cannabis disorders. Accordingly, we explored whether speed of transition to drug co-use, the number of DOTC used, and/or being an experimental cannabis-only user, a regular cannabis-only user, or a regular cannabis user who co-uses DOTC (i.e., cannabis-plus user) were associated with decision-making (DM), mental health disorder symptoms, or cannabis use-related characteristics. METHODS:We analyzed baseline data from a sub-sample of 266 adolescent (ages 14 to 16) cannabis users (CU) participating in an ongoing longitudinal study. Assessments included semi-structured interviews, self-report questionnaires, and measures of drug use, DM (measured via the Iowa Gambling Task), mental health disorders, and cannabis use-related problems. RESULTS:Endorsing a larger number of mood disorders symptoms was associated with being a regular cannabis-plus user rather than a regular cannabis-only user (AOR?=?1.08, C.I.95% 1.01, 1.15). Poorer DM was associated with a faster transition to co-use, such that for each one unit increase in DM performance, the years to onset of drug co-use increased by 1% (p?=?0.032). Endorsing a larger number of cannabis use-related problems was positively associated with endorsing a larger number of DOTC used (p?=?0.001). CONCLUSIONS:This study provides new evidence on the process of drug co-use among CU. Specifically, mood disorder symptoms were associated with use of DOTC among regular CU. Furthermore, poorer DM was associated with a faster transition to drug co-use. Poorer DM and mood disorder symptoms may aggravate or accelerate the onset of adverse consequences among adolescent CU.

SUBMITTER: Lopez-Quintero C

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6740328 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

ACCESS DATA

Publications

Transition to drug co-use among adolescent cannabis users: The role of decision-making and mental health.

Lopez-Quintero Catalina C Granja Karen K Hawes Samuel S Duperrouzel Jacqueline C JC Pacheco-Colón Ileana I Gonzalez Raul R

Addictive behaviors 20180515

<h4>Background</h4>Co-use of cannabis and drugs other than cannabis (DOTC) influences the risk of experiencing cannabis disorders. Accordingly, we explored whether speed of transition to drug co-use, the number of DOTC used, and/or being an experimental cannabis-only user, a regular cannabis-only user, or a regular cannabis user who co-uses DOTC (i.e., cannabis-plus user) were associated with decision-making (DM), mental health disorder symptoms, or cannabis use-related characteristics.<h4>Metho ...[more]

PMID: 29843040

Similar Datasets

Project description:Aims: Chronic cannabis users show impairments on laboratory measures of decision making which reflect risk factors for initiation and continued use of cannabis. However, the differential sensitivity of these tasks to cannabis use has not been established. Moreover, studies to date have often lacked assessment of psychiatric histories and use of other illicit substances, both of which may influence decision making outcomes. The current study aimed to address these limitations by (1) including multiple types of decision making tasks, (2) implementing the Probabilistic Reversal Learning Task, a measure of decision making under uncertainty, for the first time in cannabis users, (3) including young adult cannabis users with no other psychiatric disorders, and (4) conducting urinalysis to exclude users of other illicit drugs. Methods: Thirty-three current cannabis users without comorbid psychiatric disorders and 35 cannabis non-users completed behavioral measures of decision-making (Iowa Gambling Task), reward discounting (Delay Discounting Task), choice-outcome learning (the Probabilistic Reversal Learning Task) and a questionnaire assessment of impulsivity (Barratt Impulsiveness Scale). Results: Relative to non-users, cannabis users demonstrated greater preference for immediate vs. delayed rewards on the Delay Discounting Task, made fewer advantageous decisions on the Iowa Gambling Task, and endorsed greater impulsivity on the Barratt Impulsiveness Scale scales. Cannabis users and non-users showed comparable performance on the Probabilistic Reversal Learning Task. Frequency of past-month cannabis use and total years of use did not predict decision making or impulsivity. Conclusions: Young adult cannabis users demonstrated higher discounting rates and impairments in learning cost-benefit contingencies, while reversal learning was unaffected. Self-reported impulsivity was elevated as well. None of these measures correlated with current or lifetime estimates of cannabis use, arguing against a dose-relationship. Interventions that target improvement in affected components of decision making may be helpful in reducing cannabis use and relapse.

Project description:ObjectivesStudies examining the impact of adolescent and young adult cannabis use on structural outcomes have been heterogeneous. One already-identified moderator is sex, while a novel potential moderator is extent of aerobic fitness. Here, we sought to investigate the associations of cannabis use, sex, and aerobic fitness levels on brain volume. Second, we explored brain-behavior relationships to interpret these findings.MethodsSeventy-four adolescents and young adults (36 cannabis users and 38 controls) underwent 3 weeks of monitored cannabis abstinence, aerobic fitness testing, structural neuroimaging, and neuropsychological testing. Linear regressions examined cannabis use and its interaction with sex and aerobic fitness on whole-brain cortical volume and subcortical regions of interests.ResultsNo main-effect differences between cannabis users and nonusers were observed; however, cannabis-by-sex interactions identified differences in frontal, temporal, and paracentral volumes. Female cannabis users generally exhibited greater volume while male users exhibited less volume compared to same-sex controls. Positive associations between aerobic fitness and frontal, parietal, cerebellum, and caudate volumes were observed. Cannabis-by-fitness interaction was linked with left superior temporal volume. Preliminary brain-behavior correlations revealed that abnormal volumes were not advantageous in either male or female cannabis users.ConclusionsAerobic fitness was linked with greater brain volume and sex moderated the effect of cannabis use on volume; preliminary brain-behavior correlations revealed that differences in cannabis users were not linked with advantageous cognitive performance. Implications of sex-specific subtleties and mechanisms of aerobic fitness require large-scale investigation. Furthermore, present findings and prior literature on aerobic exercise warrant examinations of aerobic fitness interventions that aimed at improving neurocognitive health in substance-using youth.

Project description:Adolescent drug misuse represents a major risk factor for long-term drug use disorders. However, wide individual differences in responses to first-line behavioral therapies targeting adolescent drug misuse limit critical early intervention. Identifying the neural signatures of those adolescents most likely to respond to an intervention would potentially guide personalized strategies for reducing drug misuse. Prior to a 14-week evidence-based intervention involving combinations of contingency management, motivational enhancement, and cognitive behavioral therapy, thirty adolescent alcohol and/or cannabis users underwent fMRI while performing a reward delay discounting (DD) task tapping an addiction-related cognition. Intervention responses were longitudinally characterized by both urinalysis and self-report measures of the percentage of days used during treatment and in post-treatment follow-up. Group independent component analysis (ICA) of task fMRI data identified neural processing networks related to DD task performance. Separate measures of wholesale recruitment during immediate reward choices and within-network functional connectivity among selective networks significantly predicted intervention-related changes in drug misuse frequency. Specifically, heightened pre-intervention engagement of a temporal lobe "reward motivation" network for impulsive choices on the DD task predicted poorer intervention outcomes, while modes of functional connectivity within the reward motivation network, a prospection network, and a posterior insula network demonstrated robust associations with intervention outcomes. Finally, the pre-intervention functional organization of the prospection network also predicted post-intervention drug use behaviors for up to 6 months of follow-up. Multiple functional variations in the neural processing networks supporting preference for immediate and future rewards signal individual differences in readiness to benefit from an effective behavioral therapy for reducing adolescent drug misuse. The implications for efforts to boost therapy responses are discussed.

Dataset Information

Transition to drug co-use among adolescent cannabis users: The role of decision-making and mental health.

Publications

Transition to drug co-use among adolescent cannabis users: The role of decision-making and mental health.

Similar Datasets

OmicsDI is part of the ELIXIR infrastructure

Tweets