Booze and pot use in teens lessens life success
Teens who drank or smoked marijuana heavily are less likely to marry, go to college, or work full time
November 5, 2017
Science Daily/University of Connecticut
Young adults dependent on marijuana and alcohol are less likely to achieve adult life goals, according to new research by UConn Health scientists presented November 5 at the American Public Health Association 2017 Annual Meeting & Expo.
UConn Health researchers examined data from the Collaborative Study on the Genetics of Alcoholism (COGA) to track the effect teenage alcohol and marijuana use has on the achievement of life goals, defined as educational achievement, full time employment, marriage and social economic potential. The study includes 1,165 young adults from across the United States whose habits were first assessed at age 12 and then at two-year intervals until they were between 25 and 34 years old. Most of the study participants had an alcoholic grandparent, parent, aunt or uncle.
Overall, individuals who were dependent on either marijuana or alcohol during their teen years achieved lower levels of education, were less likely to be employed full time, were less likely to get married and had lower social economic potential.
"This study found that chronic marijuana use in adolescence was negatively associated with achieving important developmental milestones in young adulthood. Awareness of marijuana's potentially deleterious effects will be important moving forward, given the current move in the US toward marijuana legalization for medicinal and possibly recreational use," said study author Elizabeth Harari.
The researchers also found that dependence may have a more severe effect on young men. Dependent young men achieved less across all four measures, while dependent women were less likely than non-dependent women to obtain a college degree and had lower social economic potential, but were equally likely to get married or obtain full time employment.
Previous research had shown that heavy use of alcohol or marijuana in adolescence affects people developmentally. This study followed up on that, to look at what happens after age 18. The life outcomes seem to show the differences are meaningful into adulthood.
The study is ongoing.
"COGA investigators are following many subjects over the years and are using this extensive and growing database to examine several significant research topics," says Dr. Grace Chan, a statistician in the UConn Health department of psychiatry. Chan, Harari and UConn Health Alcohol Research Center Director Victor Hesselbrock are currently looking at whether there are different outcomes between young people dependent on alcohol versus marijuana, as well as why there were marked differences in outcomes between the sexes.
Harari's research was supported by Hesselbrock and Chan. The Collaborative Study on the Genetics of Alcoholism is funded by the National Institute of Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism.
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/11/171105193046.htm
Pattern of marijuana use during adolescence may impact psychosocial outcomes in adulthood
July 25, 2017
Science Daily/University of Pittsburgh Schools of the Health Sciences
A pattern of escalating marijuana use in adolescents is linked to higher rates of depression and lower educational accomplishments in adulthood.
How an adolescent uses marijuana, in particular a pattern of escalating use, may make an adolescent more prone to higher rates of depression and lower educational accomplishments by the time they reach adulthood. Those findings come from a new study led by researchers from the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine and Pitt Department of Psychology published in the journal Addiction.
"We know that cannabis use in adolescence is associated with outcomes like lower educational level, and difficulties with mood and depression, but through this long-term study, we've been able to provide a much deeper insight into this relationship, showing that certain characteristics of use may be more important than others," said Erika Forbes, Ph.D., professor of psychiatry, psychology and pediatrics, and lead author of the study. "The findings highlight that understanding marijuana use across the entire period of adolescence, which we know is an extremely vulnerable developmental phase, may tell us much more about detrimental long-term impacts than knowing about overall or one time use."
Researchers analyzed 158 boys and young men from Pittsburgh who were part of The Pitt Mother & Child Project (PMCP), a long-running longitudinal study of males at high risk for antisocial behavior and other psychopathology based on low income, family size and child gender, led by Daniel Shaw, Ph.D., distinguished professor of psychology at the University of Pittsburgh.
At age 20, the young men self-reported annual cannabis use characteristics for every year since they started use during an interview. Each man's brain was also scanned using fMRI to assess functional connectivity in the brain's reward circuit. The study participants completed questionnaires at ages 20 and 22 that examined psychosocial outcomes measuring depression and educational attainment.
The researchers analyzed frequency of cannabis use from ages 14 to 19 to determine the relationship between use during adolescence and psychosocial outcomes. In an unexpected finding, boys who started occasionally using cannabis around 15 or 16 years old and had a dramatic increase in use by the time they were 19 had the greatest dysfunction in brain reward circuitry, the highest rates of depression and the lowest educational achievements.
"We expected to see that the young men who had a high, consistent level of marijuana use would have differences in brain function. However, it turned out that those who had an increasing pattern of use over their teens had the biggest differences," Forbes added.
"Though the results do not show a direct causal link, it's important to note that even though most people think marijuana isn't harmful, it may have severe consequences for some people's functioning, education and mood," Forbes said. "While that may seem unimportant at age 20, the level of education you receive will likely have a huge effect on your quality of life and socioeconomic status later in adulthood."
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/07/170725083652.htm