Neural correlates of negative life events and their relationships with alcohol and cannabis use initiation - PubMed (original) (raw)

Neural correlates of negative life events and their relationships with alcohol and cannabis use initiation

Yihong Zhao et al. Dialogues Clin Neurosci. 2023 Dec.

Abstract

Objective: Negative life events (NLEs), e.g., poor academic performance (controllable) or being the victim of a crime (uncontrollable), can profoundly affect the trajectory of one's life. Yet, their impact on how the brain develops is still not well understood. This investigation examined the National Consortium on Alcohol and Neurodevelopment in Adolescence (NCANDA) dataset for the impact of NLEs on the initiation of alcohol and cannabis use, as well as underlying neural mechanisms.

Methods: This study evaluated the impact of controllable and uncontrollable NLEs on substance use initiation in 207 youth who initiated alcohol use, 168 who initiated cannabis use, and compared it to 128 youth who remained substance-naïve, using generalised linear regression models. Mediation analyses were conducted to determine neural pathways of NLE impacting substance use trajectories.

Results: Dose-response relationships between controllable NLEs and substance use initiation were observed. Having one controllable NLE increased the odds of alcohol initiation by 50% (95%CI [1.18, 1.93]) and cannabis initiation by 73% (95%CI [1.36, 2.24]), respectively. Greater cortical thickness in left banks of the superior temporal sulcus mediated effects of controllable NLEs on alcohol and cannabis initiations. Greater left caudate gray-matter volumes mediated effects of controllable NLEs on cannabis initiation.

Conclusions: Controllable but not uncontrollable NLEs increased the odds of alcohol and cannabis initiation. Moreover, those individuals with less mature brain structures at the time of the NLEs experienced a greater impact of NLEs on subsequent initiation of alcohol or cannabis use. Targeting youth experiencing controllable NLEs may help mitigate alcohol and cannabis initiation.

Keywords: Early initiation of alcohol use; addictive behaviours; brain immaturity; early initiation of cannabis use; negative life events; social communication skills.

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Conflict of interest statement

Dr. Paulus is an advisor to Spring Care, Inc., a behavioural health start-up, he has received royalties for an article about methamphetamine in UpToDate. Dr. Potenza has consulted for Opiant Therapeutics, Game Day Data, the Addiction Policy Forum, AXA, and Idorsia Pharmaceuticals; has been involved in a patent application with Yale University and Novartis; has received research support from Mohegan Sun Casino and the National Centre for Responsible Gaming; has participated in surveys, mailings or telephone consultations related to drug addiction, impulse-control disorders or other health topics; has consulted for and/or advised gambling and legal entities on issues related to impulse-control/addictive disorders; has provided clinical care in a problem gambling services program; has performed grant reviews for research-funding agencies; has edited journals and journal sections; has given academic lectures in grand rounds, CME events and other clinical or scientific venues; and has generated books or book chapters for publishers of mental health texts. The other authors do not report disclosures.

Figures

Figure 1.

Figure 1.

Mediation analysis shows how brain features explain relationships between controllable NLEs and initiation of alcohol and cannabis, respectively. Potential confounding effects due to age, gender, race/ethnicity, parental highest education level, pubertal stage, scanner type, and estimated intracrine volume were controlled in the mediation analyses. Cortical thickness of the left banks of the superior temporal sulcus mediates the effects of controllable NLEs on initiations of alcohol (A) and cannabis (B) use, respectively, (C) left caudate gray-matter volume mediates the effect of controllable NLEs on initiation of cannabis use. The figure includes the following regression coefficients: (1) the effects of controllable NLEs on each brain mediator; (2) the effects of brain mediators on initiation of alcohol and cannabis first use when adjusting for controllable NLEs; (3) the direct and indirect associations along with the 95%CIs between controllable NLEs and the onset of alcohol or cannabis use, respectively. *p < 0.05. **p < 0.001. The right column shows the location of each corresponding brain region. Note, NLEs and substance initiation data were collected at the same visit. While brain feature measures were collected at the visit before substance initiation, therefore, brain immaturity should be regarded as a pre-existing condition in the mediation analyses.

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