The CannTeen Study: Cannabis use disorder, depression, anxiety, and psychotic-like symptoms in adolescent and adult cannabis users and age-matched controls PRE-PRINT

Lawn, Will; Mokrysz, Claire; Lees, Rachel; Trinci, Katie; Petrilli, Kat; Skumlien, Martine; Borissova, Anna; Ofori, Shelan; Bird, Catherine; Jones, Grace C.; Bloomfield, Michael; Das, Ravi; Wall, Matthew B.; Freeman, Tom P.; Curran, Valerie

doi:10.31234/osf.io/c7x95

Cited by 7 publications

(6 citation statements)

References 60 publications

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“…This issue might have biased the findings, or else might have rendered the findings more representative of persons who use cannabis. Indeed, some groups of cannabis users-such as those endorsing a cannabis use disorder-experience mental health problems and polysubstance use (Lawn et al, 2022).…”

Section: Limitations Of the Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

Measuring white matter microstructure in 1,457 cannabis users and 1,441 controls: A systematic review of diffusion-weighted MRI studies

Robinson

Gleeson²,

Arun³

et al. 2023

Front. Neuroimaging

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IntroductionCannabis is the most widely used regulated substance by youth and adults. Cannabis use has been associated with psychosocial problems, which have been partly ascribed to neurobiological changes. Emerging evidence to date from diffusion-MRI studies shows that cannabis users compared to controls show poorer integrity of white matter fibre tracts, which structurally connect distinct brain regions to facilitate neural communication. However, the most recent evidence from diffusion-MRI studies thus far has yet to be integrated. Therefore, it is unclear if white matter differences in cannabis users are evident consistently in selected locations, in specific diffusion-MRI metrics, and whether these differences in metrics are associated with cannabis exposure levels.MethodsWe systematically reviewed the results from diffusion-MRI imaging studies that compared white matter differences between cannabis users and controls. We also examined the associations between cannabis exposure and other behavioral variables due to changes in white matter. Our review was pre-registered in PROSPERO (ID: 258250; https://www.crd.york.ac.uk/prospero/).ResultsWe identified 30 diffusion-MRI studies including 1,457 cannabis users and 1,441 controls aged 16-to-45 years. All but 6 studies reported group differences in white matter integrity. The most consistent differences between cannabis users and controls were lower fractional anisotropy within the arcuate/superior longitudinal fasciculus (7 studies), and lower fractional anisotropy of the corpus callosum (6 studies) as well as higher mean diffusivity and trace (4 studies). Differences in fractional anisotropy were associated with cannabis use onset (4 studies), especially in the corpus callosum (3 studies).DiscussionThe mechanisms underscoring white matter differences are unclear, and they may include effects of cannabis use onset during youth, neurotoxic effects or neuro adaptations from regular exposure to tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), which exerts its effects by binding to brain receptors, or a neurobiological vulnerability predating the onset of cannabis use. Future multimodal neuroimaging studies, including recently developed advanced diffusion-MRI metrics, can be used to track cannabis users over time and to define with precision when and which region of the brain the white matter changes commence in youth cannabis users, and whether cessation of use recovers white matter differences.Systematic review registrationwww.crd.york.ac.uk/prospero/, identifier: 258250.

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Section: Limitations Of the Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

Measuring white matter microstructure in 1,457 cannabis users and 1,441 controls: A systematic review of diffusion-weighted MRI studies

Robinson

Gleeson²,

Arun³

et al. 2023

Front. Neuroimaging

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“…In our current cross-sectional CannTeen analyses, the consistent lack of significant Age-Group by User-Group interactions, supported by Bayesian analyses, are striking. We have also not found significant Age-Group by User-Group interactions for depression, anxiety, or psychotic-like symptoms (Lawn et al, 2022b), or verbal episodic memory, spatial working memory, or response inhibition (Lawn et al, 2022a) using the same sample. Our results suggest that the adolescent reward system may not be vulnerable to substantial harm from non-acute cannabis, at a moderate frequency of four days per week.…”

Section: Age-group Differencesmentioning

confidence: 50%

Anhedonia, Apathy, Pleasure, and Effort-Based Decision-Making in Adult and Adolescent Cannabis Users and Controls

Skumlien

Mokrysz

Freeman

et al. 2022

International Journal of Neuropsychopharmacology

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Background Cannabis use may be linked with anhedonia and apathy. However, previous studies have shown mixed results and few have examined the association between cannabis use and specific reward sub-processes. Adolescents may be more vulnerable to harmful effects of cannabis than adults. This study investigated (1) the association between non-acute cannabis use and apathy, anhedonia, pleasure, and effort-based decision-making for reward, and (2) whether these relationships were moderated by age-group. Methods We used data from the ‘CannTeen’ study. Participants were 274 adult (26-29 years) and adolescent (16-17 years) cannabis users (1-7 days/week use in the past three months), and gender- and age-matched controls. Anhedonia was measured with the Snaith-Hamilton Pleasure Scale (n=274), and apathy was measured with the Apathy Evaluation Scale (n=215). Effort-based decision-making for reward was measured with the Physical Effort task (n=139), and subjective wanting and liking of rewards was measured with the novel Real Reward Pleasure task (n=137). Results Controls had higher levels of anhedonia than cannabis users (F1,258=5.35, p=.02, ηp2=.02). There were no other significant effects of User-Group and no significant User-Group*Age-Group interactions. Null findings were supported by post hoc Bayesian analyses. Conclusion Our results suggest that cannabis use at a frequency of three to four days per week is not associated with apathy, effort-based decision-making for reward, reward wanting, or reward liking in adults or adolescents. Cannabis users had lower anhedonia than controls, albeit at a small effect size. These findings are not consistent with the hypothesis that non-acute cannabis use is associated with amotivation.

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“…The data derive from the longitudinal arm of the 'CannTeen' study. Readers are directed to the full study protocol (Lawn et al, 2019) for further specification of aims, data collection procedures, tasks and power calculations for the full project. Other recent manuscripts report the full study and have focussed on cognitive effects and clinical symptoms in this cohort (Lawn et al, 2022a(Lawn et al, , 2022b.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Associations between regular cannabis use and brain resting-state functional connectivity in adolescents and adults

et al. 2023

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Background/aim: Cannabis use is highly prevalent in adolescents; however, little is known about its effects on adolescent brain function. Method: Resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging was used in matched groups of regular cannabis users ( N = 70, 35 adolescents: 16–17 years old, 35 adults: 26–29 years old) and non-regular-using controls ( N = 70, 35 adolescents/35 adults). Pre-registered analyses examined the connectivity of seven major cortical and sub-cortical brain networks (default mode network, executive control network (ECN), salience network, hippocampal network and three striatal networks) using seed-based analysis methods with cross-sectional comparisons between user groups and age groups. Results: The regular cannabis use group (across both age groups), relative to controls, showed localised increases in connectivity only in the ECN analysis. All networks showed localised connectivity differences based on age group, with the adolescents generally showing weaker connectivity than adults, consistent with the developmental effects. Mean connectivity across entire network regions of interest (ROIs) was also significantly decreased in the ECN in adolescents. However, there were no significant interactions found between age group and user group in any of the seed-based or ROI analyses. There were also no associations found between cannabis use frequency and any of the derived connectivity measures. Conclusion: Regular cannabis use is associated with changes in connectivity of the ECN, which may reflect allostatic or compensatory changes in response to regular cannabis intoxication. However, these associations were not significantly different in adolescents compared to adults.

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The CannTeen Study: Cannabis use disorder, depression, anxiety, and psychotic-like symptoms in adolescent and adult cannabis users and age-matched controls PRE-PRINT

Cited by 7 publications

References 60 publications

Measuring white matter microstructure in 1,457 cannabis users and 1,441 controls: A systematic review of diffusion-weighted MRI studies

Measuring white matter microstructure in 1,457 cannabis users and 1,441 controls: A systematic review of diffusion-weighted MRI studies

Anhedonia, Apathy, Pleasure, and Effort-Based Decision-Making in Adult and Adolescent Cannabis Users and Controls

Associations between regular cannabis use and brain resting-state functional connectivity in adolescents and adults

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