Externalizing Risk Pathways for Adolescent Substance Use and Its Developmental Onset: A Canadian Birth Cohort Study: Trajectoires de comportements extériorisés et le risque pour l'initiation et l'usage de substances des adolescents : Une étude de cohorte de naissance canadienne

Alcohol Use Disorder Polygenic Risk Scores and Trajectories of Early Adolescent Externalizing Behaviors: Examining the Role of Parenting and Family Conflict in the Racially/Ethnically Diverse ABCD Sample

This study examined the independent and interactive effects of alcohol use disorder genome-wide polygenic scores (AUD-PGS) and parenting and family conflict on early adolescent externalizing behaviors. Data were drawn from White (N = 6181, 46.9% female), Black/African American (N = 1784, 50.1% female), and Hispanic/Latinx (N = 2410, 48.0% female) youth from the adolescent brain cognitive development Study (ABCD). Parents reported on youth externalizing behaviors at baseline (T1, age 9/10), 1-year (T2, age 10/11) and 2-year (T3, age 11/12) assessments. Youth reported on parenting and family environment at T1 and provided saliva or blood samples for genotyping. Results from latent growth models indicated that in general externalizing behaviors decreased from T1 to T3. Across all groups, higher family conflict was associated with more externalizing behaviors at T1, and we did not find significant associations between parental monitoring and early adolescent externalizing behaviors. Parental acceptance was associated with lower externalizing behaviors among White and Hispanic youth, but not among Black youth. Results indicated no significant main effect of AUD-PGS nor interaction effect between AUD-PGS and family variables on early adolescent externalizing behaviors. Post hoc exploratory analysis uncovered an interaction between AUD-PGS and parental acceptance such that AUD-PGS was positively associated with externalizing rule-breaking behaviors among Hispanic youth, but only when parental acceptance was very low. Findings highlight the important role of family conflict and parental acceptance in externalizing behaviors among early adolescents, and emphasize the need to examine other developmental pathways underlying genetic risk for AUD across diverse populations.

Substance use patterns in 9 to 13-year-olds: Longitudinal findings from the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD) study

Background

Though largely substance-naïve at enrollment, a proportion of the youth in the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD) Study are expected to initiate substance use (SU) as they transition into later adolescence. With annual data from youth 9-13 years-old, this study aims to describe their SU patterns over time. Here, prevalence rates of use are reported, along with predicted odds of use while analyzing common risk-factors associated with youth SU.

Methods

The ABCD Study® enrolled 11,876 participants at Baseline (ages 9-10) and has followed them annually. Data through half of the third follow-up visit are available (ages 12-13; n = 6,251). SU descriptives for al psychoactive substances over time are outlined. General estimating equations (GEEs) assessed whether sociodemographic factors, internalizing and externalizing symptoms, and parental SU problems were associated with SU between Baseline and Y2 follow-up.

Results

Across time, alcohol and nicotine remain the most used substances. Yearly rates of any SU increased (past year use: 13.9% in Y1; 14% Y2, 18.4% Y3). Cumulatively, by Y3, 39.7% of the cohort reported experimenting (e.g., sipping alcohol) with SU within their lifetime, while 7.4% reported a "full use" (a full alcohol drink, nicotine use, cannabis use, or any other SU) in their lifetime (past-year: 1.9% alcohol, 2.1% nicotine, 1.1% cannabis, 1.2% other substances). GEEs revealed ongoing longitudinal associations between sociodemographic factors, greater externalizing symptoms, and parental drug problems with increased odds of initiating SU.

Conclusions

As ABCD participants transition into their teenage years, the cohort is initiating SU at increasing (though still low) rates.

Gene-environment interplay in externalizing behavior from childhood through adulthood

BACKGROUND

Genetic and environmental influences on externalizing problems are often studied separately. Here, we extended prior work by investigating the implications of gene-environment interplay in childhood for early adult externalizing behavior. Genetic nurture would be indicated if parents' genetic predisposition for externalizing behavior operates through the family environment in predicting offspring early adult externalizing behavior. Evocative gene-environment correlation would be indicated if offspring genetic predisposition for externalizing behavior operates through child externalizing behavior in affecting the family environment and later early adult externalizing behavior.

METHOD

Longitudinal data from seven waves of the TRacking Adolescents' Individual Lives Survey, a prospective cohort study of Dutch adolescents followed from age 11 to age 29 (n at baseline = 2,734) were used. Child externalizing behavior was assessed using self and parent reports. Family dysfunction was assessed by parents. Early adult externalizing behavior was assessed using self-reports. Genome-wide polygenic scores for externalizing problems were constructed for mothers, fathers, and offspring.

RESULTS

Offspring polygenic score and child behavior each predicted early adult externalizing problems, as did family dysfunction to a small extent. Parents' polygenic scores were not associated with offspring's early adult externalizing behavior. Indirect effect tests indicated that offspring polygenic score was associated with greater family dysfunction via child externalizing behavior (evocative gene-environment correlation) but the effect was just significant and the effect size was very small. Parents' polygenic scores did not predict family dysfunction, thus the data do not provide support for genetic nurture.

CONCLUSIONS

A very small evocative gene-environment correlation was detected but effect sizes were much more pronounced for stability in externalizing behavior from childhood through early adulthood, which highlights the necessity to intervene early to prevent later problems.

Cocaine cue-induced mesocorticolimbic activation in cocaine users: Effects of personality traits, lifetime drug use, and acute stimulant ingestion

Stimulant drug-paired cues can acquire the ability to activate mesocorticolimbic pathways and lead to new bouts of drug use. Studies in laboratory animals suggest that these effects are augmented by progressively greater drug use histories, impulsive personality traits, and acute drug ingestion. As a preliminary test of these hypotheses in humans, we exposed cocaine users (n = 14) and healthy volunteers (n = 10) to cocaine-related videos during two functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) sessions, once following acute administration of placebo and once following d-amphetamine (0.3 mg/kg, p.o.). Across sessions, cocaine users showed larger cocaine cue-induced responses than healthy controls in the associative striatum and midbrain. Among the cocaine users, larger drug cue-induced responses during the placebo session were correlated with higher Barratt Impulsiveness Scale (BIS-11) nonplanning scores (associative striatum) and greater lifetime use of stimulant drugs (limbic, associative, and sensorimotor striatum). The administration of d-amphetamine did not augment the cue-induced activations, but, in cocaine users, drug cue-induced striatal activations were more widespread following prolonged cocaine cue exposure. Together, these effects of past and present drug use might aggravate the risk for stimulant drug use problems.