Substantiated childhood maltreatment and young adulthood cannabis use disorders: A pre-birth cohort study

Abstract

This study investigates the association between exposure to prospectively-substantiated childhood maltreatment between 0 to 14 years of age and lifetime cannabis use, abuse and dependence reported at 21 years. Data were taken from 2526 (51.6% female) participants in the Mater Hospital-University of Queensland Study of Pregnancy, a pre-birth, prospective, cohort study. Prospectively-substantiated cases of childhood maltreatment, reported to the government child protection agencies between 0 and 14 years of age, were linked to CIDI DSM-IV self-report data from the 21-year follow-up. Exposure to any childhood maltreatment, and childhood neglect in particular, predicted subsequent cannabis abuse with adjusted odds ratios (AORs) of 1.79 and 2.62, respectively. Any childhood maltreatment, physical abuse, emotional abuse and neglect predicted cannabis dependence with AORs of 2.47, 2.81, 2.44 and 2.68, respectively. The associations for an early age of onset of cannabis abuse and dependence were significant and consistent for maltreated children. In addition, frequency of maltreatment substantiations predicted cannabis abuse, dependence and an early age of onset of these disorders. The AORs for cannabis ever use without any DSM-IV cannabis disorder were 1.78 for any maltreatment and 2.15 for emotional abuse. Any childhood maltreatment and neglect predicted lifetime ever cannabis use, as well as cannabis use disorder. There was little evidence for any interaction between gender and different forms of childhood maltreatment and its association with cannabis use disorders. Physical abuse, emotional abuse and neglect, as well as multiple episodes of maltreatment independently predicted cannabis use disorders.

Adverse childhood experiences among patients with substance use disorders at a referral psychiatric hospital in Kenya

“…Physical abuse positively predicted current use of cannabis which is comparable to previous studies [ 36 , 37 ]. In a cohort study conducted by Alemu and colleagues, exposure to physical abuse was found to predict cannabis dependence (AOR = 2.81).…”

Child Maltreatment and Illicit Substance Abuse: A Systematic Review and Meta‐Analysis of Longitudinal Studies

“…One possible explanation for this is that neglect tends to be difficult to define and is poorly reported and often misunderstood as a form of violence, especially in children. Indeed, we found only four studies that evaluated this type of trauma (Abajobir et al, ; Dube et al, ; Huang et al, ; Wilson and Widom, ), which corroborate the observation that neglect does not have a consistent and universally accepted definition (Friedman and Billick, ).…”

“…Initial screenings of the titles and abstracts of these studies revealed that 937 papers did not meet the study criteria and duplication was also present in an additional 74 papers (they did not match the thematic criteria). The remaining 34 articles were read, and after applying the criteria for inclusion and exclusion, we selected nine articles for analysis (Abajobir et al, ; Dube et al, ; Fergusson et al, ; Hayatbakhsh et al, , ; Huang et al, ; Rogosch et al, ; Van der Pol et al, ; Wilson and Widom, ). After an indepth review of the reference lists of the nine selected papers, we identified an additional paper (Silverman et al, ) that was also included.…”

Does child maltreatment predict alcohol use disorders in young adulthood? A cohort study of linked notifications and survey data

“…A further limitation is that most work has considered maltreatment as a whole, or focused on physical and sexual abuse. However, there is growing evidence of the adverse psychological effects of emotional abuse and neglect [10][11][12][13][14][15]. Both may alter the development of brain reward and oxytocin systems in children leading, in turn, to poorer care for the subsequent generation when these individuals become parents themselves [16,17].…”