Understanding and Defining Addiction in an Honors Context

Exploration and development of identity, autonomy, sexuality, academic functioning, and peer relationships are important age-appropriate tasks of adolescence and emerging adulthood (Baer & Peterson; Cicchetti & Rogosch; Erikson). During college, this developmental stage may manifest as questioning prior beliefs and assumptions and exploring fresh philosophies and behaviors (Schulenberg & Maggs). Many emerging adults try out what they believe are different facets of adult life. Some of the requisite experimentation may include risk-taking behavior, including experimentation with alcohol, cigarettes, and marijuana (Baer & Peterson; Shedler & Block; Winters). College provides opportunities to experiment with potentially addictive substances at peer-run social events that often include alcohol and other substances (Schulenberg & Maggs). The combination of a mindset poised for exploration and a developmental period with enhanced opportunity for experimental behavior makes college a unique time to explore the high-risk behaviors that are prevalent within emerging adult communities. While large courses may usher university students through the research about what constitutes addictions, honors programs offer an invaluable resource for exploring more fully these value-laden, highrisk, and timely questions. In small, discussion-based honors classes, emerging adults are able to actively explore their questions, thoughts, and previous conceptions about addiction in a manner that would not be possible in larger classes. The students emerge from my 300-level honors class—titled “Yeah, I Like It, but I’m Not Addicted”: Exploring the Meanings and Consequences of Addiction—with a more thorough understanding of addiction as well as analytical skills that will help them navigate both academic and personal contexts in college

Two approaches to tailoring treatment for cultural minority adolescents

At this time, compared with mainstream (Caucasian) youth, cultural minority adolescents experience more severe substance-related consequences and are less likely to receive treatment. Although several empirically supported interventions (ESIs), such as motivational interviewing (MI), have been evaluated with mainstream adolescents, fewer published studies have investigated the fit and efficacy of these interventions with cultural minority adolescents. In addition, many empirical evaluations of ESIs have not explicitly attended to issues of culture, race, and socioeconomic background in their analyses. As a result, there is some question about the external validity of ESIs, particularly in disadvantaged cultural minority populations. This review seeks to take a step toward filling this gap, by addressing how to improve the fit and efficacy of ESIs like MI with cultural minority youth. Specifically, this review presents the existing literature on MI with cultural minority groups (adult and adolescent), proposes two approaches for evaluating and adapting this (or other) behavioral interventions, and elucidates the rationale, strengths, and potential liabilities of each tailoring approach

Assessment of culture and environment in the Adolescent Brain and Cognitive Development Study: Rationale, description of measures, and early data.

Neurodevelopmental maturation takes place in a social environment in addition to a neurobiological one. Characterization of social environmental factors that influence this process is therefore an essential component in developing an accurate model of adolescent brain and neurocognitive development, as well as susceptibility to change with the use of marijuana and other drugs. The creation of the Culture and Environment (CE) measurement component of the ABCD protocol was guided by this understanding. Three areas were identified by the CE Work Group as central to this process: influences relating to CE Group membership, influences created by the proximal social environment, influences stemming from social interactions. Eleven measures assess these influences, and by time of publication, will have been administered to well over 7,000 9-10 year-old children and one of their parents. Our report presents baseline data on psychometric characteristics (mean, standard deviation, range, skewness, coefficient alpha) of all measures within the battery. Effectiveness of the battery in differentiating 9-10 year olds who were classified as at higher and lower risk for marijuana use in adolescence was also evaluated. Psychometric characteristics on all measures were good to excellent; higher vs. lower risk contrasts were significant in areas where risk differentiation would be anticipated

Adolescent brain cognitive development (ABCD) study: Overview of substance use assessment methods.

One of the objectives of the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD) Study (https://abcdstudy.org/) is to establish a national longitudinal cohort of 9 and 10 year olds that will be followed for 10 years in order to prospectively study the risk and protective factors influencing substance use and its consequences, examine the impact of substance use on neurocognitive, health and psychosocial outcomes, and to understand the relationship between substance use and psychopathology. This article provides an overview of the ABCD Study Substance Use Workgroup, provides the goals for the workgroup, rationale for the substance use battery, and includes details on the substance use module methods and measurement tools used during baseline, 6-month and 1-year follow-up assessment time-points. Prospective, longitudinal assessment of these substance use domains over a period of ten years in a nationwide sample of youth presents an unprecedented opportunity to further understand the timing and interactive relationships between substance use and neurocognitive, health, and psychopathology outcomes in youth living in the United States

Evaluating Providers’ Prescription Opioid Instructions to Pediatric Patients

Receiving an opioid prescription during childhood increases the risk of hazardous prescription opioid (PO) use during emerging adulthood. Instruction on how to safely use POs plays an essential role in pediatric patients’ capacity to utilize as well as to discontinue POs appropriately. This study aimed to evaluate pediatric PO label instructions provided to a large sample of pediatric outpatients. Data were extracted from the electronic healthcare records system identifying pediatric patients who received a PO between 2016 and 2019 from pediatric outpatient medical clinics were affiliated with a northwestern United States medical center and children’s hospital. Pediatric patients (n = 12,613) between 0–17 years old who received a PO during outpatient care were included. Patients with chronic health conditions (e.g., cancer) or who received their PO from an inpatient medical setting were excluded. Patient demographics, medication instructions, associated diagnoses, and other prescription information (e.g., name of medication, dose, and quantity dispensed) were examined using automated text classification. Many label instructions did not include any indication/reason for use (20.8%). Virtually none of the POs (\u3e99%) included instructions for how to reduce/wean off POs, contact information for questions about the POs, and/or instructions around how to dispose of the POs. Efforts are needed to ensure that pediatric PO instructions contain essential elements to improve comprehension of when and how to use POs for pediatric patients

Retaining Adolescent and Young Adult Participants in Research During a Pandemic: Best Practices From Two Large-Scale Developmental Neuroimaging Studies (NCANDA and ABCD)

The novel coronavirus pandemic that emerged in late 2019 (COVID-19) has created challenges not previously experienced in human research. This paper discusses two large-scale NIH-funded multi-site longitudinal studies of adolescents and young adults – the National Consortium on Alcohol and Neurodevelopment in Adolescence (NCANDA) and the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD) Study – and valuable approaches to learn about adaptive processes for conducting developmentally sensitive research with neuroimaging and neurocognitive testing across consortia during a global pandemic. We focus on challenges experienced during the pandemic and modifications that may guide other projects, such as implementing adapted protocols that protect the safety of participants and research staff, and addressing assessment challenges through the use of strategies such as remote and mobile assessments. Given the pandemic’s disproportionate impacts on participants typically underrepresented in research, we describe efforts to retain these individuals. The pandemic provides an opportunity to develop adaptive processes that can facilitate future studies’ ability to mobilize effectively and rapidly

Prediction of suicidal ideation and attempt in 9 and 10 year-old children using transdiagnostic risk features

The objective of the current study was to build predictive models for suicidal ideation in a sample of children aged 9–10 using features previously implicated in risk among older adolescent and adult populations. This case-control analysis utilized baseline data from the Adolescent Brain and Cognitive Development (ABCD) Study, collected from 21 research sites across the United States (N = 11,369). Several regression and ensemble learning models were compared on their ability to classify individuals with suicidal ideation and/or attempt from healthy controls, as assessed by the Kiddie Schedule for Affective Disorders and Schizophrenia–Present and Lifetime Version. When comparing control participants (mean age: 9.92±0.62 years; 4944 girls [49%]) to participants with suicidal ideation (mean age: 9.89±0.63 years; 451 girls [40%]), both logistic regression with feature selection and elastic net without feature selection predicted suicidal ideation with an AUC of 0.70 (CI 95%: 0.70–0.71). The random forest with feature selection trained to predict suicidal ideation predicted a holdout set of children with a history of suicidal ideation and attempt (mean age: 9.96±0.62 years; 79 girls [41%]) from controls with an AUC of 0.77 (CI 95%: 0.76–0.77). Important features from these models included feelings of loneliness and worthlessness, impulsivity, prodromal psychosis symptoms, and behavioral problems. This investigation provided an unprecedented opportunity to identify suicide risk in youth. The use of machine learning to examine a large number of predictors spanning a variety of domains provides novel insight into transdiagnostic factors important for risk classification

Measuring retention within the adolescent brain cognitive development (ABCD)SM study

The Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD

A Baseline for the Multivariate Comparison of Resting-State Networks

As the size of functional and structural MRI datasets expands, it becomes increasingly important to establish a baseline from which diagnostic relevance may be determined, a processing strategy that efficiently prepares data for analysis, and a statistical approach that identifies important effects in a manner that is both robust and reproducible. In this paper, we introduce a multivariate analytic approach that optimizes sensitivity and reduces unnecessary testing. We demonstrate the utility of this mega-analytic approach by identifying the effects of age and gender on the resting-state networks (RSNs) of 603 healthy adolescents and adults (mean age: 23.4 years, range: 12–71 years). Data were collected on the same scanner, preprocessed using an automated analysis pipeline based in SPM, and studied using group independent component analysis. RSNs were identified and evaluated in terms of three primary outcome measures: time course spectral power, spatial map intensity, and functional network connectivity. Results revealed robust effects of age on all three outcome measures, largely indicating decreases in network coherence and connectivity with increasing age. Gender effects were of smaller magnitude but suggested stronger intra-network connectivity in females and more inter-network connectivity in males, particularly with regard to sensorimotor networks. These findings, along with the analysis approach and statistical framework described here, provide a useful baseline for future investigations of brain networks in health and disease