Healio (6/16, Gramigna) reports, “Cannabis use in middle to late adolescence may alter neurodevelopment,” investigators concluded in a study that sought “to evaluate the potential associations between MRI-assessed cerebral cortical thickness development and cannabis use among a longitudinal sample of 799 adolescents (56.3% female; mean age, 14.4 years at baseline and 19 years at follow-up) who reported being cannabis naive at study baseline and who had behavioral and neuroimaging data available at baseline and five-year follow-up.” The findings were published online June 16 in JAMA Psychiatry.
Relevance: “ Analysis revealed that thinning in right prefrontal cortices, from baseline to follow-up, was associated with attentional impulsiveness at follow-up.
Conclusions and Relevance: Results suggest that cannabis use during adolescence is associated with altered neurodevelopment, particularly in cortices rich in cannabinoid 1 receptors and undergoing the greatest age-related thickness change in middle to late adolescence.”
Related Links:
— “Adolescent cannabis use may alter neurodevelopment “Joe Gramigna, Healio, June 16, 2021