Effects of heavy alcohol abuse on adolescent brain structure and function

酗酒对青少年大脑结构和功能的影响

• 批准号: 7629801
• 负责人: George Fein
• 金额: $ 55.39万
• 依托单位: NEUROBEHAVIORAL RESEARCH, INC.
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 财政年份: 2007
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2007-06-10 至 2012-05-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/7629801
• 关键词: 18 year old; Adolescence; Adolescent; Adult; Age; Alcohol abuse; Alcohol consumption; Alcohol dependence; Alcoholic beverage heavy drinker; Alcohols; Area; Brain; Cocaine; Communities; Comorbidity; Consumption; Data; Data Quality; Development; Endocrine system; Feasibility Studies; Female; Future; Gender; General Population; Goals; Human Development; Individual; Magnetic Resonance Imaging; Marijuana; Measures; Methamphetamine; Methods; Neurocognitive; Pilot Projects; Population; Precipitating Factors; Process; Psychopathology; Recruitment Activity; Research; Research Personnel; Sampling; Schools; South Africa; Staging; Structure; Substance Use Disorder; Substance abuse problem; Sum; Technology; Teenagers; Time; Training; United States; Work; Youth; adolescent alcohol; adolescents with alcohol use disorders; alcohol effect; alcohol exposure; alcohol use disorder; body system; drinking; drug reinforcement; ecstasy; male; neuropsychological; problem drinker; psychologic; relating to nervous system; research study; underage drinking

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Relatively little is known about alcohol's effects in adolescence, a critical stage of human development. This is true despite the facts that: 1) the majority of individuals began experimenting with alcohol as teenagers, 2) drinking beginning in adolescence is one of the most powerful predictors of later alcohol abuse, and 3) in adolescence, there are changes in the areas of the brain that modulate drug reinforcement. In addition, most studies of the impact of alcohol dependence on the brain have examined individuals in treatment. Such samples represent a small proportion of alcoholics in the general population, and we have shown that treated adult alcoholics are not a representative sample of the general population of adult alcoholics with more intense early trajectory of alcohol consumption and with greater comorbid psychopathology and abnormal psychological functioning. Until proven otherwise, a reasonable assumption is that adolescents in treatment for alcohol use disorders (AUDs) are also heavier drinkers with more comorbidities than untreated adolescents with AUDs in the general population. For this reason, it is crucially important to study adolescent alcohol abusers in the community in order to understand the effects of alcohol abuse on the adolescent brain in the population at large. Moreover, it is important to study community adolescents with AUDs, but without other substance use disorders (SUDs). To do otherwise, would make it impossible to disentangle the effects of AUDs from those of other SUDs on brain structure and function. This goal has not been achievable in the United States, because the vast majority of adolescents with AUDs also have other SUDs. In the Cape Town region of South Africa, a unique opportunity to study 'pure' adolescent AUDs exists (we have documented this in a pilot study). We propose to recruit and study 100 such adolescents with AUDs (12 - 18 years of age, half males and half females), and 100 light/non-drinker age and gender matched controls, all without other SUDs or current diagnosable comorbid psychopathology. Subjects will be studied in four domains: psychological functioning, neuropsychological functioning, brain structure, and electrophysiological measures of brain function. We will be uniquely able to isolate the effects of AUDs on brain structure and function in adolescence.

描述（由申请人提供）：关于酒精在青春期的影响，这是人类发展的关键阶段，相对较少。尽管事实是：1）大多数人开始尝试以饮酒为青少年，2）青春期开始喝酒是后来的酒精滥用的最有力的预测指标之一，而3）在青春期，大脑的区域有调节药物增强的区域的变化。此外，大多数关于酒精依赖对大脑的影响的研究都检查了治疗中的个体。这些样本在普通人群中代表了一小部分酒精中毒，我们已经表明，经过治疗的成年酗酒者不是成年酗酒者的一般人群的代表性样本，其早期饮酒的早期轨迹和较高的合并症心理病理学和异常的心理功能。除非另有证明，否则一个合理的假设是，与未经处理的一般人群中的未经处理的青少年相比，饮酒障碍的青少年（AUDS）也是饮酒者更重的饮酒者。因此，研究社区中的青少年酗酒者至关重要，以了解酒精滥用对整个人群青少年大脑的影响。此外，重要的是研究社区青少年，但没有其他药物使用障碍（SUD）。否则，将不可能将AUD的影响与其他SUD的影响解散，而这些AUD对大脑结构和功能。在美国，这一目标尚未实现，因为绝大多数具有auds的青少年也有其他SUD。在南非开普敦地区，存在研究“纯”青少年auds的独特机会（我们已经在一项试点研究中记录了这一点）。我们建议招募和研究100名具有auds的青少年（12-18岁，一半男性和一半女性），以及100个光/非饮食年龄和性别匹配的对照，所有这些都没有其他SUDS或当前可诊断的合并症精神病理学。受试者将在四个领域中进行研究：心理功能，神经心理功能，大脑结构和电生理学测量。我们将具有独特的能力，能够隔离AUD对青春期大脑结构和功能的影响。