Hits to your health
Ashley Brooks-Russell et al.
Journal of Early Adolescence, forthcoming
Abstract:
Of the handful of national studies tracking trends in adolescent substance use in the United States, only the Health Behavior in School-Aged Children (HBSC) study collects data from 6th through 10th graders. The purpose of this study was to examine trends from 1998 to 2010 (four time points) in the prevalence of tobacco, alcohol, and marijuana use among 6th through 10th graders. Differences in trends by grade, gender, and race/ethnicity were examined for each substance use behavior, with a primary focus on trends for sixth and seventh graders. Overall, there were significant declines in tobacco, alcohol, and marijuana use from 1998 to 2010. The declines were largest for the younger grades, which suggest promise for future declines among high school students as these cohorts age into high school.
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René Arrazola, Nicole Kuiper & Shanta Dube
Journal of Adolescent Health, forthcoming
Purpose: The purpose of this study was to assess patterns and trends of tobacco use among high school students to better understand which products are used individually or concurrently.
Methods: Data from the National Youth Tobacco Survey from 2000 through 2012 were used to assess patterns and trends of current tobacco use (cigarettes, cigars, smokeless tobacco, and other tobacco products) among U.S. high school students. We assessed use of products individually and concurrently.
Results: During 2000–2012, overall linear declines were observed in current use of any tobacco product from 33.6% to 20.4% (p < .05), current use of only 1 tobacco product, from 18.8% to 10.5% (p < .05), and current poly tobacco use, from 14.7% to 9.9% (p < .05), among high school students. Overall current use of only cigarettes had both a linear decline, from 14.0% to 4.7%, as well as a quadratic trend.
Conclusions: During 2000–2012, the most significant overall decline observed was for students who reported smoking only cigarettes. The results suggest that more data on the use of multiple tobacco products, not just cigarettes, is needed to guide tobacco prevention and control policies and programs.
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Leah Richmond-Rakerd, Wendy Slutske & Thomas Piasecki
International Gambling Studies, forthcoming
Abstract:
Youth gambling has become a significant public health concern, and it appears that individuals are gambling at younger ages than they did in earlier generations. We tested this question by examining birth cohort differences in the age of onset of gambling in a national epidemiologic survey. Data were drawn from the United States National Comorbidity Survey Replication, a nationally representative general population survey of adults born 1904–84. Individuals were divided into four birth cohorts. The cohorts were compared on their lifetime gambling involvement and age of onset of gambling. Significant birth cohort and sex differences were found in the age of gambling initiation, with more recently born cohorts starting to gamble at progressively earlier ages, and men starting to gamble at younger ages than women. The mean age of onset of gambling for individuals born before 1942 was 32.9 years, and for those born between 1973 and 1984 it was 16.9 years. The overall mean ages of onset of gambling were 20.8 for men and 26.4 for women, but more recently born women appear to be ‘catching up’ with their male counterparts. This decreasing age of gambling initiation may help explain the increasing prevalence of disordered gambling in the United States.
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Luisa Zuccolo et al.
International Journal of Epidemiology, forthcoming
Background: There is substantial debate as to whether moderate alcohol use during pregnancy could have subtle but important effects on offspring, by impairing later cognitive function and thus school performance. The authors aimed to investigate the unconfounded effect of moderately increased prenatal alcohol exposure on cognitive/educational performance.
Methods: We used mother-offspring pairs participating in the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (ALSPAC) and performed both conventional observational analyses and Mendelian randomization using an ADH1B variant (rs1229984) associated with reduced alcohol consumption. Women of White European origin with genotype and self-reported prenatal alcohol consumption, whose offspring’s IQ score had been assessed in clinic (N = 4061 pairs) or Key Stage 2 (KS2) academic achievement score was available through linkage to the National Pupil Database (N = 6268), contributed to the analyses.
Results: Women reporting moderate drinking before and during early pregnancy were relatively affluent compared with women reporting lighter drinking, and their children had higher KS2 and IQ scores. In contrast, children whose mothers’ genotype predisposes to lower consumption or abstinence during early pregnancy had higher KS2 scores (mean difference +1.7, 95% confidence interval +0.4, +3.0) than children of mothers whose genotype predisposed to heavier drinking, after adjustment for population stratification.
Conclusions: Better offspring cognitive/educational outcomes observed in association with prenatal alcohol exposure presumably reflected residual confounding by factors associated with social position and maternal education. The unconfounded Mendelian randomization estimates suggest a small but potentially important detrimental effect of small increases in prenatal alcohol exposure, at least on educational outcomes.
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Arielle Deutsch et al.
Journal of Adolescent Health, forthcoming
Purpose: Using a genetically informed, discordant twin analysis, the objective of this study was to examine whether earlier onset of drinking and smoking behaviors predicted early sexual intercourse onset.
Methods: Over 3,400 adult same-sex twins from the Australian Twin Registry completed a structured interview that included retrospective reports on onsets of smoking, drinking, intoxication, and sexual intercourse and conduct disorder symptoms. A two-level frailty model estimated within-twin-pair and between-twin-pair comparisons. Onsets of smoking, drinking, drunkenness, and conduct disorder symptoms were estimated as sexual intercourse onset predictors.
Results: After controlling for conduct disorder, smoking and drinking onset did not predict sexual intercourse onset for either within-twin-pair or between-twin-pair comparisons. Drunkenness onset had a significant effect on sexual intercourse onset, such that twins who first experienced alcohol intoxication at a younger age than their co-twins were also more likely to have sex earlier than their co-twins.
Conclusions: Relationships between substance use and sexual intercourse onsets may be due mostly to shared underlying factors; there was only a small relation between intoxication onset and sexual intercourse onset, and no direct relation between smoking and drinking onset and sexual intercourse onset.
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Brian Earp et al.
Journal of Applied Social Psychology, forthcoming
Abstract:
The unconscious mind tends to disregard negations in its processing of semantic meaning. Therefore, messages containing negated concepts can ironically prime mental representations and evaluations that are opposite to those intended. We hypothesized that the subtle presentation of a negated concept (e.g., “no smoking”) would activate ironic motivational orientations as well. We tested this hypothesis in a public health context. Smokers viewed photographs in which “no smoking” signs were either inconspicuously embedded (prime condition) or edited out (control condition). Primed smokers showed amplified automatic approach tendencies toward smoking-related stimuli, but not toward smoking-unrelated stimuli: an ironic motivational response to exposure to the signs. Since passive priming effects generally serve to facilitate forms of action, not inhibit them, antismoking and other public health campaigns may ironically increase the very behaviors they seek to reduce.
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Sara Markowitz
Health Economics, forthcoming
Abstract:
Fires and burns are among the leading causes of unintentional death in the USA. Most of these deaths occur in residences, and cigarettes are a primary cause. In this paper, I explore the relationship between smoking, cigarette policies, and fires. As smoking rates decline, there are fewer opportunities for fires; however, the magnitude of any reduction is in question. Using a state-level panel, I find that increases in cigarette prices are associated with fewer residential fires and deaths. However, laws regulating indoor smoking are associated with more fires; in particular, restaurant and bar smoking bans are associated with an increase in fires at eating and drinking establishments. This increase is important given the growing popularity of smoking bans in the USA and around the world. As workplaces, schools, and businesses ban smoking and remove ashtrays, smokers who continue to smoke are left without safe options for disposal of cigarettes, leading to more opportunities for fires to start.
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Maternal Smoking During Pregnancy and Fetal Biometry: The INMA Mother and Child Cohort Study
Carmen Iñiguez et al.
American Journal of Epidemiology, 1 October 2013, Pages 1067-1075
Abstract:
In utero tobacco exposure has been associated with fetal growth restriction, but uncertainty remains about critical windows of exposure and specific effects on body segments. In the present study, we aimed to examine the association of maternal smoking with fetal biometry in different stages of pregnancy. The study population comprised 2,478 fetuses from a Spanish birth cohort study that was established between 2003 and 2008. Biparietal diameter, femur length, abdominal circumference, and estimated fetal weight were evaluated at 12, 20, and 34 weeks of gestation. Fetal size and growth were assessed by standard deviation scores adjusted by maternal and fetal characteristics. Maternal smoking was assessed using questionnaire and a sample of urinary cotinine at week 32 of gestation. Associations were estimated using multiple regression analysis. Smokers at week 12 of gestation showed decreased fetal growth as reflected by all growth parameters at 20–34 weeks, leading to a reduced fetal size at week 34. The reduction was greatest in femur length, at −9.4% (95% confidence interval −13.4, −5.4) and least in abdominal circumference, at −4.4% (95% CI: −8.7, −0.1). Fetuses of smokers who quit smoking before week 12 showed reduced growth only in femur length (−5.5; 95% CI: −10.1, −0.9). Dose–response curves for smoking versus fetal growth parameters (abscissa: log2 cotinine) were linear for biparietal diameter and femur length.
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Zaje Harrell, Jason Huang & Dawn Kepler
Journal of Adolescence, October 2013, Pages 893–897
Abstract:
A mediational model predicting alcohol problems was tested in a sample of college students (n = 130) and their parents (n = 115). The indirect effect of substance-use coping and the age of onset of alcohol use were examined in the relationship between socioeconomic status (SES) and alcohol problems. Findings indicated that parent-reported SES was associated with increased alcohol problems; the age of onset of alcohol use partially mediated this relationship. Substance-use coping was not a significant mediator in the model. Student-reported SES was not associated with alcohol problems. Implications for examining social status in relation to college drinking behaviors are discussed.
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Julianna Pacheco
Public Opinion Quarterly, forthcoming
Abstract:
How, if at all, do public policies influence the opinions of ordinary citizens? Using the longitudinal variation in the passage of state smoking bans in restaurants, I consider how policies influence views toward target populations, educate the public about what is good/bad, safe/dangerous, right/wrong, and so forth, and affect support for future policy interventions. I find that people view smokers with more antipathy and believe that secondhand smoke is more harmful post-enactment of smoking bans. Length of exposure matters for support of future policy interventions: people exposed to smoking bans for long periods of time are more supportive of additional smoking restrictions in public places. The theoretical framework offered here can be used to evaluate how other policies, particularly those that are tangible to a majority of citizens, influence public opinion.
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Katherine Theall et al.
American Journal of Public Health, October 2013, Pages S133-S135
Abstract:
We examined the association between telomere length and prenatal tobacco exposure (PTE) in 104 children aged 4 to 14 years. Salivary telomere length (STL) was determined from salivary DNA using quantitative polymerase chain reaction. Of the children, 18% had maternal reported PTE. Mean STL was significantly lower among children with PTE (6.4 vs 7.5, P < .05). Findings extend the literature demonstrating the negative long-term effects of PTE to include a cellular marker of aging linked to multiple negative health outcomes.
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Daniel Fuster et al.
Journal of General Internal Medicine, forthcoming
Background: Marijuana is the most commonly used illicit drug, yet its impact on health and healthcare utilization has not been studied extensively.
Methods: To assess the cross-sectional association between frequency of marijuana use and healthcare utilization (emergency department and hospitalization) and health (comorbidity, health status), we studied patients in an urban primary care clinic who reported any recent (past 3-month) drug use (marijuana, opioids, cocaine, others) on screening. Frequency of marijuana use in the past 3 months was the main independent variable [daily/ almost daily, less than daily and no use (reference group)]. Outcomes assessed were past 3-month emergency department or hospital utilization, the presence of medical comorbidity (Charlson index ≥ 1), and health status with the EuroQol. We used separate multivariable regression models adjusting for age, sex, tobacco and other substance use.
Results: All 589 participants reported recent drug use: marijuana 84 % (29 % daily, 55 % less than daily), cocaine 25 %, opioid 23 %, other drugs 8 %; 58 % reported exclusive marijuana use. Frequency of marijuana use was not significantly associated with emergency department use {adjusted odds ratio [AOR] 0.67, [95 % confidence interval (CI) 0.36, 1.24] for daily; AOR 0.69 [95 % CI 0.40,1.18] for less than daily versus no use}, hospitalization [AOR 0.79 (95 % CI 0.35, 1.81) for daily; AOR 1.23 (95 % CI 0.63, 2.40) for less than daily versus no use], any comorbidity [AOR 0.62, (95 % CI 0.33, 1.18) for daily; AOR 0.67 (95 % CI 0.38, 1.17) for less than daily versus no use] or health status (adjusted mean EuroQol 69.1, 67.8 and 68.0 for daily, less than daily and none, respectively, global p = 0.78).
Conclusions: Among adults in primary care who screen positive for any recent illicit or non-medical prescription drug use, we were unable to detect an association between frequency of marijuana use and health, emergency department use, or hospital utilization.
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Economic conditions and health behaviours during the ‘Great Recession’
Arijit Nandi et al.
Journal of Epidemiology & Community Health, forthcoming
Background: The adoption of healthier behaviours has been hypothesised as a mechanism to explain empirical findings of population health improvements during some economic downturns.
Methods: We estimated the effect of the local unemployment rate on health behaviours using pooled annual surveys from the 2003–2010 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance Surveys, as well as population-based telephone surveys of the US adult general population. Analyses were based on approximately 1 million respondents aged 25 years or older living in 90 Metropolitan Statistical Areas and Metropolitan Divisions (MMSAs). The primary exposure was the quarterly MMSA-specific unemployment rate. Outcomes included alcohol consumption, smoking status, attempts to quit smoking, body mass index, overweight/obesity and past-month physical activity or exercise.
Results: The average unemployment rate across MMSAs increased from a low of 4.5% in 2007 to a high of 9.3% in 2010. In multivariable models accounting for individual-level sociodemographic characteristics and MMSA and quarter fixed effects, a one percentage-point increase in the unemployment rate was associated with 0.15 (95% CI −0.31 to 0.01) fewer drinks consumed in the past month and a 0.14 (95% CI −0.28 to 0.00) percentage-point decrease in the prevalence of past-month heavy drinking; these effects were driven primarily by men. Changes in the unemployment rate were not consistently associated with other health behaviours. Although individual-level unemployment status was associated with higher levels of alcohol consumption, smoking and obesity, the MMSA-level effects of the recession were largely invariant across employment groups.
Conclusions: Our results do not support the hypothesis that health behaviours mediate the effects of local-area economic conditions on mortality.
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Shane Shucheng Wong et al.
Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology, October 2013, Pages 1611-1620
Objective: Substance use is associated with suicidal ideation, planning and attempts among adolescents, but it is unclear how this association varies across different types and number of substances. This study examined the association between patterns of substance use and suicidality among a nationally representative sample of high school students in the United States during the last decade.
Method: Data from the 2001 to 2009 Youth Risk Behavior Survey including 73,183 high school students were analyzed. Logistic regression analyses examined the association between lifetime use of ten common substances of abuse (alcohol, cocaine, ecstasy, hallucinogens, heroin, inhalants, marijuana, methamphetamines, steroids, and tobacco) and four measures of suicidality over the last year (suicidal ideation, suicide plan, suicide attempt, and severe suicide attempt requiring medical attention), controlling for potential confounders (socio-demographic variables, interpersonal violence, sexual intercourse, and symptoms of depression and eating disorder).
Results: Among the ten substances, univariate analysis demonstrates that adolescents reporting a history of heroin use have the strongest association with suicidal ideation, suicide plan, suicide attempts and severe suicide attempts in the last year (odds ratio = 5.0, 5.9, 12.0, and 23.6 compared to non-users), followed by users of methamphetamines (OR = 4.3–13.1) and steroids (OR = 3.7–11.8). Cocaine, ecstasy, hallucinogens and inhalants had a moderate association with suicidality (OR = 3.1–10.8). Users of marijuana, alcohol and tobacco also had an increased odds ratio of suicidality (OR = 1.9–5.2). The association between each of ten substances and the four measures of suicidality remained significant with multivariate analysis controlling for multiple confounders (p < 0.05), except for the association between alcohol use and severe suicide attempts. The seven illicit substances had a stronger association with severe suicide attempts as compared to all other confounding risk factors except depression. The number of substances used had a graded relationship to suicidality.
Conclusions: Substance abuse is a strong risk factor for suicidal thoughts and behaviors among American high school students, with the strength of this relationship dramatically increasing with particular illicit drugs and a higher number of substances. The findings reinforce the importance of routine screening for substance abuse in the assessment of adolescent suicide risk.
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Haslyn Hunte & Tracy Finlayson
Journal of Urban Health, forthcoming
Abstract:
Based on several stress-coping frameworks, recent studies have suggested that perceived experiences of discrimination, a psychosocial stressor, may be associated with various risky health behaviors. The 2001 Chicago Community Adult Health Study (n = 3,101), a face-to-face representative probability sample of adults in Chicago, IL, USA, was used to examine the relationship among lifetime everyday discrimination, major discrimination, and the use of illicit and psychotherapeutic drugs for nonmedical reasons. We used negative binomial logistic and multinomial regression analyses controlling for potential confounders. Approximately 17 % of the respondents reported using one or more illicit drugs and/or misusing one or more psychotherapeutic drug. Adjusting for socio-demographic characteristics, other stressors and various personality-related characteristics, results from negative binomial regression suggest that respondents who experienced moderate to high levels of everyday discrimination misused on average 1.5 different kinds of drugs more than respondents that experienced relatively low levels of everyday discrimination (p < 0.05). Similarly, an increase in one lifetime major discrimination event was associated with an increase of misusing 1.3 different drugs on average regardless of experiences of everyday discrimination (p < 0.001). When examining the types of drugs misused, results from multinomial logistic regression suggest that everyday discrimination was only associated with illicit drug use alone; however, lifetime major discrimination was associated with increased odds of using any illicit and both illicit/psychotherapeutic drugs. Mental health and substance use clinical providers should be aware of these potential relationships and consider addressing the harmful effects of perceived discrimination, in all patients not only among racial/ethnic minority patients.
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Smoking and psychopathology increasingly associated in recent birth cohorts
Ardesheer Talati et al.
Drug and Alcohol Dependence, forthcoming
Background: In recent decades, smoking has become an increasingly non-normative behavior. Because deviant behaviors are associated with greater clinical and genetic risks, current-generation smokers may have greater concentrations of psychiatric comorbidity than previous generations. We examined this question empirically by testing whether associations between measures of smoking, psychiatric diagnoses, and risk-associated personality traits, increased across seven birth-cohorts of the 20th century.
Method: 4,326 subjects from a cross-sectional NIMH control sample were categorized into one of seven groups based on birth (born before 1930, and 1930s-’80s) and one of three smoking levels (lifetime dependent smoker, never dependent smoker, never smoker smoking and ND were assessed using the Fagerstrom Test for Nicotine Dependence; psychiatric diagnoses (drug and alcohol dependence, major depression, and generalized anxiety disorder) using the Composite International Diagnostic Interview-Short Form, and personality traits (neuroticism and extraversion) with the Eysenck Personality Questionnaire.
Result: Lifetime prevalence of smoking decreased across the seven cohorts. Associations between smoking and drug dependence, generalized anxiety, and neuroticism, as well as total psychiatric comorbidity, were greater in more recent cohorts [smoking-by-cohort interaction: p < 0.01], with greatest increases contributed by nicotine-dependent smokers. Smoking was also independently associated with alcohol dependence and depression, but these associations did not significantly vary across cohorts.
Conclusions: More recent generations included fewer persons who smoked, but their smoking was associated with greater psychiatric morbidity. Failure to account for systematic variation in comorbidity across smoking cohorts may lead to unwanted heterogeneity in clinical, and possibly genetic, studies of nicotine dependence.
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The effect of alcohol on emotional inertia: A test of alcohol myopia
Catharine Fairbairn & Michael Sayette
Journal of Abnormal Psychology, August 2013, Pages 770-781
Abstract:
Alcohol myopia (AM) has emerged as one of the most widely researched theories of alcohol’s effects on emotional experience. Given this theory’s popularity, it is notable that a central tenet of AM has not been tested — namely, that alcohol creates a myopic focus on the present moment, limiting the extent to which the present is permeated by emotions derived from prior experience. We tested the impact of alcohol on moment-to-moment fluctuations in affect, applying advances in emotion assessment and statistical analysis to test this aspect of AM without drawing the attention of participants to their own emotional experiences. We measured emotional fluctuations using autocorrelation, a statistic borrowed from time-series analysis measuring the correlation between successive observations in time. High emotion autocorrelation is termed emotional inertia and is linked to negative mood outcomes. Social drinkers (N = 720) consumed alcohol, placebo, or control beverages in groups of 3 over a 36-min group formation task. We indexed affect using the Duchenne smile, recorded continuously during the interaction (34.9 million video frames) according to the Facial Action Coding System (P. Ekman, W. V. Friesen, & J. C. Hager, 2002). Autocorrelation of Duchenne smiling emerged as the most consistent predictor of self-reported mood and social bonding when compared with Duchenne smiling mean, standard deviation, and linear trend. Alcohol reduced affective autocorrelation, and autocorrelation mediated the link between alcohol and self-reported mood and social outcomes. Findings suggest that alcohol enhances the ability to freely enjoy the present moment untethered by past experience and highlight the importance of emotion dynamics in research examining affective correlates of psychopathology.
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Daniel Quintana et al.
Drug and Alcohol Dependence, September 2013, Pages 395–398
Background: Past research has highlighted an important role of the autonomic nervous system in alcohol dependence and capacity for self-regulation. While previous studies have examined alcohol dependent inpatients, it remains unclear whether resting-state HRV, a potential psychophysiological marker of ones capacity for self-regulation, is related to craving in patients who currently consume alcohol. Thus, the aim of the present study was to determine whether HRV predicts alcohol craving in dependent individuals in the community.
Methods: Resting-state HRV and alcohol craving, as indexed by the obsessive compulsive drinking scale, were assessed in 26 alcohol dependent outpatients.
Results: Results supported hypotheses indicating that HRV accounts for an additional 12.1% of the variance in craving after controlling for age, anxiety and levels of alcohol consumption. Here we show for the first time that resting-state HRV predicts craving in alcohol dependent outpatients.
Conclusion: Results provide important new evidence for a role of the autonomic nervous system in the maintenance of dependence disorders.
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Damaris Rohsenow et al.
Addictive Behaviors, forthcoming
Aims: Beliefs about the effects of mixing caffeine and alcohol on hangover or sleep may play a role in motivation to consume these mixtures; therefore, information is needed about actual effects. We investigated whether intoxication with caffeinated vs. non-caffeinated beer differentially affected perceived sleep quality, sleepiness, and hangover incidence and severity the next morning.
Methods: University students (89%) and recent graduate drinkers were randomized to receive: (1) beer with the equivalent of 69 mg caffeine/12 oz glass of regular beer (n = 28) or (2) beer without caffeine (n = 36), in sufficient quantity to attain a BrAC of 0.12 g%. After an 8-hour supervised sleep period, participants completed measures of hangover, sleep quality, sleep latency and time asleep, and sleepiness.
Results: While caffeinated beer improved perceived sleep quality, effect sizes were greater for morning alertness than for quality while sleeping, with no effect on sleep latency or total sleep time. No effects were seen on hangover incidence or severity.
Conclusions: Mixing caffeine and alcohol does not significantly impair amount of sleep or sleep latency, hangover, or sleepiness the morning after drinking to intoxication in this population.
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Binge drinking and sleep problems among young adults
Ioana Popovici & Michael French
Drug and Alcohol Dependence, September 2013, Pages 207–215
Objective: As most of the literature exploring the relationships between alcohol use and sleep problems is descriptive and with small sample sizes, the present study seeks to provide new information on the topic by employing a large, nationally representative dataset with several waves of data and a broad set of measures for binge drinking and sleep problems.
Methods: We use data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add Health), a nationally representative survey of adolescents and young adults. The analysis sample consists of all Wave 4 observations without missing values for the sleep problems variables (N = 14,089, 53% females). We estimate gender-specific multivariate probit models with a rich set of socioeconomic, demographic, physical, and mental health variables to control for confounding factors.
Results: Our results confirm that alcohol use, and specifically binge drinking, is positively and significantly associated with various types of sleep problems. The detrimental effects on sleep increase in magnitude with frequency of binge drinking, suggesting a dose–response relationship. Moreover, binge drinking is associated with sleep problems independent of psychiatric conditions.
Conclusions: The statistically strong association between sleep problems and binge drinking found in this study is a first step in understanding these relationships. Future research is needed to determine the causal links between alcohol misuse and sleep problems to inform appropriate clinical and policy responses.
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Jane Costello et al.
Drug and Alcohol Dependence, forthcoming
Background: Dysregulated immune function and elevated inflammation markers are seen in adults with chronic diseases, including some psychiatric disorders, but evidence on inflammation in the case of drug abuse is conflicting.
Objective: To test the concurrent and predictive relations between C-reactive protein (CRP) and use and abuse of alcohol, nicotine and cannabis in a longitudinal, population sample of adolescents and young adults, at the period of highest increase in drug use.
Methods: Data from the prospective population-based Great Smoky Mountains Study (N = 1,420) were used, covering children in the community assessed at ages 9-16, 19, and 21. Structured interviews were used to assess substance abuse symptoms and DSM-IV substance use disorders. Bloodspots were collected at each assessment and assayed for CRP.
Results: CRP levels were higher in the presence of nicotine, alcohol, and cannabis use and nicotine dependence. In prospective analyses, higher CRP levels predicted cannabis use and nicotine dependence, and nicotine use predicted higher CRP levels, once covariates were included in the models. Significant covariates were age, race (American Indian), and obesity.
Conclusions: The inter-relationship of CRP and substance abuse has implications for the later health risks associated with early drug and alcohol use and abuse.
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Xingbao Li et al.
Drug and Alcohol Dependence, forthcoming
Background: Repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) can temporarily interrupt or facilitate activity in a focal brain region. Several lines of evidence suggest that rTMS of the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) can affect processes involved in drug addiction. We hypothesized that a single session of low-frequency rTMS of the left DLPFC would modulate cue-induced craving for methamphetamine (MA) when compared to a sham rTMS session
Methods: In this single-blind, sham-controlled crossover study, ten non-treatment seeking MA-dependent users and 8 healthy controls were randomized to receive fifteen minutes of sham and real (1 Hz) DLPFC rTMS in two experimental sessions separated by one hour. During each rTMS session, participants were exposed to blocks of neutral cues and MA-associated cues. Participants rated their craving after each cue block
Results: In MA users, real rTMS over the left DLPFC increased self-reported craving as compared to sham stimulation (17.86 ± 1.46 vs. 24.85 ± 1.57, p = 0.001). rTMS had no effect on craving in healthy controls. One Hz rTMS of the left DLPFC was safe and tolerable for all participants.
Conclusions: Low frequency rTMS of the left DLPFC transiently increased cue-induced craving in MA participants. These preliminary results suggest that 1 Hz rTMS of the left DLPFC may increase craving by inhibiting the prefrontal cortex or indirectly activating subcortical regions involved in craving.
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Robyn Migliorini et al.
Drug and Alcohol Dependence, forthcoming
Background: Altered interoception, i.e., processing of stimuli from inside the body, has been considered an important component of drug-taking behavior. However, approaches to examine interoceptive sensitivity in humans have been limited. This study examined the hypothesis that adolescents with substance use disorder show altered interoceptive processing, measured by stimulating mechano-receptive C-fibers (MR-CF) via soft touch.
Methods: Adolescents with substance use disorders (SUD, n = 15) and comparison youth (CON, n = 17) underwent functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) during anticipation or reception of a positively valenced “Soft Touch” consisting of MR-CF stimulation to the palm or forearm. Visual analog scales (VAS) indexed subjective interoceptive experience (e.g., pleasantness, intensity).
Results: Across all conditions, SUD displayed attenuated left posterior insula activation compared to CON. Greater left anterior insula and right lentiform nucleus activation was evident during the application of soft touch for SUD but not for CON. Whereas for CON, greater left anterior insula activation was associated with higher pleasantness ratings, pleasantness was linked to less anterior insula activation in SUD. Finally, within SUD, attenuated posterior insula activation was related to more recent cannabis use.
Conclusions: SUD adolescents exhibit blunted somatovisceral processing of pleasant stimulation, heightened sensitivity in regions responsible for processing reward value, and altered relationships between interoceptive processing and subjective experience.