Substance Use in Emerging Adulthood

2014 ◽  
Author(s):  
Judy A. Andrews ◽  
Erika Westling
Keyword(s):  
Substance Use ◽  
Emerging Adulthood ◽  
Life Stress ◽  
Pubertal Development ◽  
Early Life Stress ◽  
Peer Pressure ◽  
College Attendance ◽  
Optimal Decision ◽  
Western World ◽  
Optimal Decision Making

The prevalence of substance use and substance use disorders (SUDs) and the co-occurrence of SUDs with other mental health disorders peaks in emerging adulthood. This review examines prevalence as a function of gender, race/ethnicity, historical trends, and geographic regions across both the US and Western world. Prospective predictors reviewed include the effects of early life stress, parental factors (including parental use, support, and parenting skills), peer affiliations, internalizing and externalizing behaviors, educational attainment, personality, and timing of pubertal development. Concurrent predictors include assumption of adult roles and college attendance, stress associated with life events, changes in personality, and laws and taxation. Also reviewed are consequences of use, including neurological changes. The peak in prevalence across emerging adulthood may be due to several factors, including freedom from constraint, increased peer pressure, less than optimal decision-making skills, high disinhibition, and increased stress during this developmental period.

scholarly journals Imprecise Action Selection in Substance Use Disorder: Evidence for Active Learning Impairments When Solving the Explore-Exploit Dilemma

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ryan Smith ◽  
Philipp Schwartenbeck ◽  
Jennifer Stewart ◽  
Rayus Kuplicki ◽  
Hamed Ekhtiari ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Substance Use ◽  
Information Seeking ◽  
Action Selection ◽  
Learning Rate ◽  
Optimal Decision ◽  
Sufficient Evidence ◽  
Learning Impairments ◽  
The Face ◽  
Optimal Decision Making ◽  
Selection Mechanisms

Background: Substance use disorders (SUDs) are a major public health risk. However, mechanisms accounting for continued patterns of poor choices in the face of negative life consequences remain poorly understood. Methods: We use a computational (active inference) modeling approach, combined with multiple regression and hierarchical Bayesian group analyses, to examine how treatment-seeking individuals with one or more SUDs (alcohol, cannabis, sedatives, stimulants, hallucinogens, and/or opioids; N = 147) and healthy controls (HCs; N = 54) make choices to resolve uncertainty within a gambling task. A subset of SUDs (n = 49) and HCs (n = 51) propensity-matched on age, sex, and verbal IQ were also compared to replicate larger group findings. Results: Results indicate that: (a) SUDs show poorer task performance than HCs (p=.03, Cohen’s d = .33), with model estimates revealing less precise action selection mechanisms (p=.004, d = .43), a lower learning rate from losses (p=.02, d = .36), and a greater learning rate from gains (p=.04, d = .31); and (b) groups do not differ significantly in goal-directed information seeking. Conclusions: Findings suggest a pattern of inconsistent behavior in response to positive outcomes in SUDs combined with a tendency to attribute negative outcomes to chance. Specifically, individuals with SUDs fail to settle on a behavior strategy despite sufficient evidence of its success. These learning impairments could help account for difficulties in adjusting behavior and maintaining optimal decision making during and after treatment.

scholarly journals Early Life Stress as a Risk Factor for Substance use Disorders: Clinical and Neurobiological Substrates

2015 ◽  
Vol 37 (1) ◽  
pp. 36-41 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sajoy Purathumuriyil Varghese ◽  
Janitza L. Montalvo-Ortiz ◽  
John G. Csernansky ◽  
Rodney I. Eiger ◽  
Amy A. Herrold ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Substance Use ◽  
Risk Factor ◽  
Substance Use Disorders ◽  
Life Stress ◽  
Early Life ◽  
Early Life Stress ◽  
Neurobiological Substrates

scholarly journals DNA methylation of the glucocorticoid receptor gene predicts substance use in adolescence: longitudinal data from over 1000 young individuals

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Elena Raffetti ◽  
Philippe Anastasios Melas ◽  
Anton Jonatan Landgren ◽  
Filip Andersson ◽  
Yvonne Forsell ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Dna Methylation ◽  
Substance Use ◽  
Glucocorticoid Receptor ◽  
Life Stress ◽  
Early Life ◽  
Predictor Variable ◽  
Early Life Stress ◽  
Glucocorticoid Receptor Gene ◽  
Self Reports ◽  
Middle Adolescence

AbstractEarly life stress has been linked to increased methylation of the Nuclear Receptor Subfamily 3 Group C Member 1 (NR3C1) gene, which codes for the glucocorticoid receptor. Moreover, early life stress has been associated with substance use initiation at a younger age, a risk factor for developing substance use disorders. However, no studies to date have investigated whether NR3C1 methylation can predict substance use in young individuals. This study included adolescents 13–14 years of age that reported no history of substance use at baseline, (N = 1041; males = 46%). Participants contributed saliva DNA samples and were followed in middle adolescence as part of KUPOL, a prospective cohort study of 7th-grade students in Sweden. Outcome variables were self-reports of (i) recent use, (ii) lifetime use, and (iii) use duration of (a) alcohol, (b) tobacco products, (c) cannabis, or (d) any substance. Outcomes were measured annually for three consecutive years. The predictor variable was DNA methylation at the exon 1 F locus of NR3C1. Risk and rate ratios were calculated as measures of association, with or without adjustment for internalizing symptoms and parental psychiatric disorders. For a subset of individuals (N = 320), there were also morning and afternoon salivary cortisol measurements available that were analyzed in relation to NR3C1 methylation levels. Baseline NR3C1 hypermethylation associated with future self-reports of recent use and use duration of any substance, before and after adjustment for potential confounders. The overall estimates were attenuated when considering lifetime use. Sex-stratified analyses revealed the strongest association for cigarette use in males. Cortisol analyses revealed associations between NR3C1 methylation and morning cortisol levels. Findings from this study suggest that saliva NR3C1 hypermethylation can predict substance use in middle adolescence. Additional longitudinal studies are warranted to confirm these findings.

scholarly journals Associations Between Early Life Stress, Child Maltreatment, and Pubertal Development Among Girls in Foster Care

2011 ◽  
Vol 21 (4) ◽  
pp. 871-880 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jane Mendle ◽  
Leslie D. Leve ◽  
Mark Van Ryzin ◽  
Misaki N. Natsuaki ◽  
Xiaojia Ge
Keyword(s):  
Foster Care ◽  
Child Maltreatment ◽  
Life Stress ◽  
Early Life ◽  
Pubertal Development ◽  
Early Life Stress

The effects of early life stress on context fear generalization in adult rats.

2019 ◽  
Vol 133 (1) ◽  
pp. 50-58 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nathalie D. Elliott ◽  
Rick Richardson
Keyword(s):  
Life Stress ◽  
Early Life ◽  
Early Life Stress ◽  
Adult Rats ◽  
Fear Generalization
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