There are a number of biological, psychological, and social factors, known as risk factors, which can increase an individual’s vulnerability to developing a chemical use disorder. The frequency with which substance use disorders occur within some families seems to be higher than could be explained by an addictive environment of the family. Therefore, most substance use professionals recognize a genetic aspect to the risk of drug addiction.
The Risks of Ritalin Addiction & Its Treatment
The United Nations Office on Drug and Crime conducted a national survey on the extent, patterns, and trends of drug abuse in India in 2003, which found that there were 2 million opiate users, 8.7 million cannabis users, and 62.5 million alcohol users in India, of whom 17% to 20% are dependent [13]. According to prevalence studies, 13.1% of drug users in India are under the age of 20 [14]. This review will outline the cognitive, psychopathological, and future drug use related associations with adolescent substance use, especially related to the emerging trends in this use that have not been addressed in previous reviews. We will also present brain-imaging based neurobiological correlates of these findings when applicable, providing a unique perspective on these associations and potential interactions between behavioral and neural domains. While the specific behaviors under each of the reviewed domains may differ between the drug classes (depending on the availability of research findings), this approach helps to contrast the similarities and differences between the different drugs. Although brain development continues well into adulthood (Spear, 2014), we limit this review to studies using adolescent sample populations with a mean age of 19-years-old or lower to capture the potential effects of drug use during the most dynamic stages of post-childhood development.
- Various treatment options are available to help you on your journey of recovery and sobriety.
- If you are starting a conversation about substance use, choose a place where you and your teen are both comfortable.
- The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare developed Rashtriya Kishor Swasthya Karyakram for teenagers aged 10 to 19, with a focus on improving nutrition, sexual and reproductive health, mental health, preventing injuries and violence, and preventing substance abuse.
- Nearly all research on adolescent substance use (as well as most reviews on the topic) has focused on individual use, but using multiple substances is more common than individual use.
- “Alcohol and cannabis are not risk free, of course. But we know that those drugs have never been found to be contaminated with fentanyls, whereas pills and powders are at a very high risk of being contaminated.”
How Alcohol Affects the Brain
The Monitoring the Future investigators noted that schools opt-in to participate in the survey, and some schools that normally participate opted-out this year as they continued to operationally recover from the pandemic. All participating students took the survey via the web – either on tablets or on a computer – with between 95-99% of respondents taking the survey in-person in school. The most important thing to remember is that teens need support before, during, and after substance or alcohol abuse treatment. The activity has been proven to be extremely dangerous in many situations, with drunk driving accidents killing thousands of teens each year.
Drug Abuse and Addiction
JK formulated the idea for the review and guided the research and writing process. All authors contributed to the article and approved the submitted version. The content published in Cureus is the result of clinical experience and/or research by independent individuals or organizations. Cureus is not responsible for the scientific accuracy or reliability of data or conclusions published herein. All content published within Cureus is intended only for educational, research and reference purposes.
School Obligations
Similarly, Aloi et al. (2018) reported an association between increasing AUD severity and reduced BOLD responses within the ACC and the dorsomedial PFC during the affective Stroop task assessing emotional interference on cognitive functioning. This suggests that activation differences may predate, and possibly contribute to, the initiation of alcohol use. Together, these findings suggest that neural vulnerabilities in regions implicated in inhibitory control predict alcohol use, and heavy drinking subsequently may lead to additional alterations. Similarly, Squeglia et al. (2014) have reported a bidirectional relationship with smaller cingulate and rostral ACC volumes at baseline predicting later what came first, the alcohol, or the alcoholic thinking transition to heavy drinking, and heavy drinking, in turn, predicting greater volume reductions in the left inferior/middle temporal gyrus and left caudate. Another study has demonstrated the reverse relationship between alcohol use and morphological differences, whereby smaller left dorsal and rostral paralimbic ACC volumes predicted later alcohol-related problems (Cheetham et al., 2014). Adolescent alcohol drinking may also contribute to the risk for subsequent alcohol or drug use and dependence in adulthood; adolescent binge drinking predicts an increased risk of adult alcohol dependence, persistent cannabis, and other illicit drug use (Viner and Taylor, 2007; Pampati et al., 2018).
Substance Misuse and Mental Health
Learn about the symptoms of teen substance use disorder and what to do next. Research has improved our understanding of factors that help buffer youth from a variety of risky behaviors, including substance use. For the purposes of addressing HIV and STD prevention, high-risk substance use is any use by adolescents of substances with a high risk of adverse outcomes (i.e., injury, criminal justice involvement, school dropout, loss of life). In some cases products common in homes and that have certain chemicals are inhaled for intoxication. Substances that teens may use include those that are legal for adults, such as alcohol or tobacco. There are serious health risks to misusing OTC cold and cough products, including increased blood pressure, loss of consciousness, and overdose.
Mind Matters: The Body’s Response to Bath Salts
In a study of adolescents first assessed at 11-years-old, working memory impairment predicted both baselines and increased frequency of alcohol use over a four-year follow-up period, while there was no evidence supporting the reverse relationship (Khurana et al., 2013). However, in adolescents first assessed before initiation of substance use, extreme-binge drinkers exhibited poorer performance in measures of verbal learning and memory despite equivalent performances at baseline (Nguyen-Louie et al., 2016). The latter study suggests that the effects of alcohol on learning and memory may be mediated by dose.
Developmentally, adolescents are at the highest risk for drug dependence and severe addiction. The parts of the brain that tend to harbor the executive brain functions are the front-most parts of the brain, called the frontal lobes, including the frontal cortex and prefrontal cortex. When a person takes drugs, the inhibitory functions of the brain are particularly impaired, causing the person to have trouble stopping him or herself from acting on impulses that the brain would otherwise delay or prevent. This disinhibition can lead to the substance abuser engaging in aggressive, sexual, criminal, dangerous, or other activities that can have devastating consequences for the addicted person or those around him or her.
Over-the-counter (OTC) and prescription medications can be misused more easily than others because they’re often easy for teens to obtain. Diet pills, caffeine pills, and cold and flu products with dextromethorphan are just a few examples of OTC substances teens may use. They may also have access to family member’s prescriptions for drugs like opiate painkillers and stimulants or get them from friends who do.
He or she will compulsively seek and use drugs even though doing so brings devastating consequences to his or her life, and for those who care about him. But teens with a substance use disorder may not seem to care as much about their looks, and choose to focus their attention more on the substance. Find out as much as you can about their drug use—what substances they’re using, how often they’re using them, and how they’re getting them.
Marijuana is often thought of as not being “as bad” as other drugs and, in some cases, even good for you. However, marijuana can be harmful to teens because their brains are still developing. Marijuana use in teens is linked to difficulty with problem-solving, memory and learning issues, impaired coordination, and problems with maintaining attention. Drug and alcohol use can lead to substance use disorder as well as the specific health risks of the substance being abused.
Teens can find drug dealers through apps like Instagram and Snapchat, or even find out which gas stations sell alcohol to underage kids. Various treatment facilities 9 diet tips to help when drug detoxing and options are available for teenagers suffering from substance abuse problems. Your school counselor is a great place to start looking for professional help.
Longitudinal studies on the effects of combined substance use on psychiatric morbidity are warranted to understand the directionality of this relationship. Very little clinical work has been conducted on the long-term effects of opioids on memory and cognition. Given that adolescent opioid use is rarely unaccompanied by other substance use, it is difficult to attribute any effects to opioids on their own. One study found that opioid-dependent adolescents had significantly impaired working memory, but was unable to determine if these deficits were substance-induced or pre-existing before use (Vo et al., 2014).
For example, people with alcohol use disorder might receive medications like sedatives (benzodiazepines) or blood pressure medications to decrease palpitations and blood pressure, or seizure medications to prevent seizures during the detoxification process. (B) Adolescent substance use by school grade (8, 10, 12) as per sleep drunkenness the 2019 Monitoring the Future report (Johnston et al., 2020). All categories represent self-reported substance use in the past 30 days except for heavy alcohol use (five or more drinks in a row) in the past two weeks. Emerging substance use behaviors (i.e., nicotine and cannabis vaping) are highlighted by a red box.
The development of different brain regions follows different time-varying trajectories. Alcohol exposure has adversely affected various emotional, mental, and social functions in the frontal areas linked to higher-order cognitive functioning that emerge later in adolescence and young adulthood [21]. Psychological associations with substance abuse or addiction include mood disorders like early aggressive behaviors, depression, anxiety, or bipolar disorder, thought disorders like schizophrenia, as well as personality disorders like an antisocial personality disorder. A cross-sectional study looking at combined substance use and psychiatric morbidity in adolescents aged 13–15 found that regular cannabis and nicotine use had an additive risk for psychiatric disorders (Boys et al., 2003). This risk was especially high for the development of depressive disorders and was increased further with the addition of regular alcohol consumption.
There can also be legal issues if a teen is using someone else’s prescriptions. Find out how many people have alcohol use disorder in the United States across age groups and demographics. For addiction to certain drugs, there are also medicines that can help you re-establish normal brain function and decrease your cravings. Research shows that combining medicines with counseling gives most people the best chance of success. Table Table11 discusses the short- and long-term effects of substance abuse.
Furthermore, the cross-sectional design of many studies reviewed here limits conclusions on causal directions as there is a possibility that observed neuroimaging and behavioral differences predate the onset of substance use. While we addressed studies that highlighted neurobiological or cognitive factors antedate to substance use here, studies that did not account for underlying between-subject differences may contribute to discrepant findings. In the absence of controlled trials, longitudinal studies are more useful in inferring directional relationships between drug use and neurobiological consequences, especially when baseline measurements are carried out before the onset of substance use. Therefore, more longitudinal analyses, especially studies that are concerned with structural and functional differences within the brain, are needed. Adolescents are attracted to e-cigarette flavors, especially those with fruit- and candy-like tastes, and a desire to use e-cigarettes for their taste is frequently cited as a reason for use (Vogel et al., 2019; Jackson et al., 2020). Also, recent findings by Chen et al. (2018) demonstrate that smoking and non-smoking youth report urges to smoke and have greater activation of reward-related brain regions following the presentation of e-cigarette advertisements in comparison to neutral cues.