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Arsenault Dennis posted an update 6 months, 2 weeks ago
Childhood attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is found to be a risk factor for substance use in adolescence, but literature has suggested that the observed influence of ADHD may be driven by the comorbid conduct disorder (CD) or oppositional defiance disorder (ODD). We examine whether childhood ADHD and CD influence lifetime use of substances, independent of other comorbid mental problems and familial risk factors.
A total of 712 sibling pairs from a nationally representative US longitudinal survey were followed from 1997 to 2015. The Behavior Problems Index (BPI) was used to measure mental disorders in children. The hyperactive, antisocial, headstrong, anxious/depressed subscales of the BPI for ADHD, CD, ODD, anxiety/depression of children were assessed by their biological mothers who were the primary caregiver. Lifetime substance use by age 18 was measured by self-reports. A within-family design was used to minimize confounding.
After controlling for mother fixed effects and comorbid mental disorders, symptoms of ADHD were not associated with lifetime substance use in adolescence except for regular smoking, while those of CD were positively and significantly associated with heightened risk for lifetime use of cannabis, regular smoking, cocaine, barbiturates, tranquilizers, hallucinogens, and inhalants in adolescence.
The results suggest that the association observed between childhood ADHD and substance use in adolescence may be driven by comorbid CD whose influences are robust to other mental disorders or unobserved familial factors.
The results suggest that the association observed between childhood ADHD and substance use in adolescence may be driven by comorbid CD whose influences are robust to other mental disorders or unobserved familial factors.
Childhood trauma is associated with the development of adult mental health and substance use disorders, with females generally being more at risk. Alcohol is commonly used for coping with trauma, and alcohol use disorder (AUD) affects ∼14.4 million adult Americans annually. Research investigating sex differences in the environmental modification of anxiety and alcohol use following childhood trauma will extend our understanding of the etiology of AUD. Here, we sought to model the interacting effects of a single-episode late childhood trauma with post-trauma environment on adult alcohol use using male and female mice.
C57Bl6/J mice (d22) exposed to predator odor (TMT) or water were reared in standard environments (SE) or environmental enrichment (EE). Mice were assessed for adolescent anxiety and conditioned fear, and for adult alcohol use in a limited access, response non-contingent, alcohol exposure paradigm.
A single exposure to predator odor was an effective stressor, inducing long-term sex-dependent changes in conditioned fear and alcohol behaviors that interacted with post-trauma environment. Adolescent EE females showed more conditioned freezing to the trauma-associated context. Adult EE mice consumed less total alcohol than SE mice. However, alcohol use across time differed for males and females. Exposure to a childhood stressor increased alcohol use significantly in females, but not males. EE males, but not EE females, drank less than SE counterparts.
Findings from this model recapitulate greater vulnerability to childhood trauma in females and support sex differences in post-trauma development of conditioned fear and alcohol use that are modified by environment.
Findings from this model recapitulate greater vulnerability to childhood trauma in females and support sex differences in post-trauma development of conditioned fear and alcohol use that are modified by environment.
Methadone maintenance treatment (MMT) is effective in decreasing opioid use or facilitating abstinence. Previous studies using small opioid use disorder samples suggest that cognitive impairments including impulsivity and executive functions may partially improve on MMT, but a range of deficits may persist. However, systematic assessments with larger samples are needed to confirm the profile of cognitive functions on MMT.
We assessed four types of impulsivity (delay discounting, reflection impulsivity, risk taking and motoric impulsivity), executive functioning (spatial working memory, paired associative learning and strategic planning) and drug cue-induced craving in a relatively large population (115 MMT patients, 115 healthy controls). The relationships between impulsivity, drug cue-induced craving and addiction-related variables were also assessed.
Delay discounting, as well as drug cue-induced craving was increased in patients, while motoric impulsivity was lower than in controls. Paired associativimpaired executive function, in our large sample size on chronic MMT we only observed impaired associative learning related to depressive and anxiety symptoms highlighting a role for managing comorbid symptoms to further optimize cognitive function.
Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD) is a leading cause of lifelong developmental and physical disabilities and behavioural problems. This study describes the characteristics of individuals diagnosed with or at risk for FASD in British Columbia, Canada.
A retrospective chart review and cross-sectional analysis were conducted on records of individuals diagnosed or at risk for FASD at the Asante Centre from January 2015 to July 2019. Descriptive statistics results were stratified by age, sex, and involvement with the criminal justice and child welfare systems. selleck chemical Logistic regression was used to investigate potential associations.
161 individuals with diagnosed or at risk for FASD, (53 % male; mean age = 15.7 years, SD = 9.1) were included in the analysis. High levels of psychological/developmental disabilities (78 %), physical comorbidities (38 %), substance use (50 %), and involvement in child welfare (75 %) and criminal justice systems (30 %) were found across the entire group. Individuals over 20 reportndividuals with FASD.Mesenchymal stromal cells (MSCs) can promote tissue repair in regenerative medicine, and their therapeutic potential is further enhanced via spheroid formation. Stress relaxation of hydrogels has emerged as a potent stimulus to enhance MSC spreading and osteogenic differentiation, but the effect of hydrogel viscoelasticity on MSC spheroids has not been reported. Herein, we describe a materials-based approach to augment the osteogenic potential of entrapped MSC spheroids by leveraging the mechanical properties of alginate hydrogels. Compared to spheroids entrapped in covalently crosslinked elastic alginate, calcium deposition of MSC spheroids was consistently increased in ionically crosslinked, viscoelastic hydrogels. We previously demonstrated that intraspheroidal presentation of Bone Morphogenetic Protein-2 (BMP-2) on hydroxyapatite (HA) nanoparticles resulted in more spatially uniform MSC osteodifferentiation, providing a method to internally influence spheroid phenotype. In these studies, we observed significant increases in calcium deposition by MSC spheroids loaded with BMP-2-HA in viscoelastic gels compared to soluble BMP-2, which was greater than spheroids entrapped in all elastic alginate gels.