Jim Liebelt's Youth Culture Watch

Teen Cannabis Use Dramatically Raises Risk of Psychotic Disorders

The following is excerpted from an online article posted by ScienceAlert.

Using cannabis raises the risk of teenagers developing a psychotic disorder by a staggering 11 times compared to teens who didn't report using the drug, a Canadian study has found.

That's a much stronger association than what previous studies have reported. A 2016 analysis of data from 10 different studies found the heaviest cannabis users were about four times more likely than non-users to be diagnosed with schizophrenia or another psychotic condition.

Part of the reason, aside from cannabis users' age, is that much of the data used in past analyses of adolescent cannabis use comes from before 2000, when cannabis was far less potent than it is today, the team behind the new analysis suggests.

In this new study, McMaster University epidemiologist André McDonald and colleagues looked at formal diagnoses of a psychotic disorder, such as schizophrenia, rather than acute psychotic episodes or psychotic symptoms.

They also analyzed psychosis in late adolescence, as well as early adulthood, to make sure they weren't missing (like other studies might have) a critical window when psychotic disorders tend to first appear.

The team linked survey data on cannabis use in teens and young adults, collected between 2009 and 2012, with public health records in Ontario, Canada, up to 2018. This allowed them to trace recorded diagnoses of psychotic disorders, such as schizophrenia, in the years after cannabis use among some 11,300 individuals.

The researchers found a strong association between using cannabis and the risk of adolescents being diagnosed with a psychotic disorder. Diagnosis rates were 11 times higher among teens aged 12-19 years who said they used cannabis compared to those who didn't.

 

"These findings are consistent with the neurodevelopmental theory that teens are especially vulnerable to the effects of cannabis" because their brains are still developing," McDonald says.

 

The paper was published in Psychological Medicine.

 

Source: ScienceAlert
https://www.sciencealert.com/teen-cannabis-use-dramatically-raises-risk-of-psychotic-disorders

Teens with Behavioral Problems, Particularly Girls, More Likely to Sext

The following is excerpted from an online article posted by MedicalXpress.

It's important that programs promoting safer sexting behaviors consider the specific needs of adolescents with behavioral problems, a new study by McGill University researchers suggests. The research is published in the journal Computers in Human Behavior.

Adolescents with behavioral problems engage in elevated levels of sexting compared with their peers without such problems. While this is the case both for male and female teens, the researchers found, the link was stronger for the young women.

The researchers also found that girls who exhibited behavioral problems as children engage in elevated levels of sexting as adolescents. For boys, however, behavioral problems in childhood are not a predictor of future adolescent sexting, their study indicates.

The researchers urge educators, parents and mental health professionals to have open, non-judgmental dialogues with youth to help guide and support them through the complexities of human interactions in the digital age. The study contributes information about which youth might be at greater risk.

"They must recognize and support youth who may be particularly vulnerable to experiencing sexual victimization, such as girls with conduct problems," said Audrey Mariamo, the study's first author and Ph.D. student in Educational and Counselling Psychology under the supervision of Temcheff.

Source: MedicalXpress
https://medicalxpress.com/news/2024-06-teens-behavioral-problems-girls-sext.html

Early Life Stress Can Lead to Substance Use in Adolescents

The following is excerpted from an online article posted by News Medical.

Stress during childhood is associated with earlier substance use in male and female adolescents, according to a study presented Saturday at ENDO 2024, the Endocrine Society's annual meeting in Boston, Mass. Traumatic events may increase substance use risk for males, while environmental stress and early puberty may increase the risk for females, the researchers found.

Early life stress is children's experiences of abuse, neglect and conflict. Approximately 20% of adolescents in the United States have experienced early life stress at some point, and these experiences influence adolescent and adult health behavior outcomes.

Donovan and colleagues evaluated sex differences in the impact of puberty and stress on alcohol, nicotine and cannabis use by the age of 13. They analyzed data from 8,608 male and female participants in the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD) Study, who were 9 or 10 years old when the study began. The study included data from the first three years of the ABCD study.

The researchers looked at the effects of early life stress and found it increased the likelihood of earlier use of alcohol, nicotine or cannabis use across both males and females.

Early life stress increased the likelihood of earlier substance use for males by 9-18% and for females by 13-20%. Environmental stress increased the likelihood of early use of nicotine and cannabis in females by 15-24%. Traumatic event stress increased the likelihood in males by 15-16%. Higher pubertal development scores increased the likelihood of earlier nicotine use for females while decreasing the likelihood for males.

Source: News Medical
https://www.news-medical.net/news/20240603/Early-life-stress-can-lead-to-substance-use-in-male-and-female-adolescents.aspx

Too Many Teens Are Driving Drowsy

The following is excerpted from an online article posted by HealthDay.

Teens on the verge of falling asleep behind the wheel is a common threat to public safety on U.S. roadways, a new study reports.

About 1 in 6 teenage drivers say they’ve driven while drowsy, according to a National Sleep Foundation study presented Wednesday at the annual meeting of the Associated Professional Sleep Societies in Houston. The research was also published in a special supplement of the May issue of the journal Sleep.

That finding means that about 1.7 million teenage drivers have driven while sleepy, and more than 400,000 teens drive drowsy at least once a week, researchers estimated.

“This is a troubling rate, especially given that teens are new drivers with relatively low opportunity to have engaged in drowsy driving when compared to the lifetime of driving opportunities in adults,” said principal investigator Joseph Dzierzewski, vice president of research and scientific affairs at the National Sleep Foundation.

Teens know it’s not safe -- about 95% said drowsy driving is extremely or very risky, poll results show.

However, they listed drowsy driving as having the lowest risk of death or serious harm when compared to drunk, drugged or distracted driving, researchers found.

The survey involved 1,124 U.S. teens ages 13 to 17, researchers said.

Source: HealthDay
https://www.healthday.com/health-news/first-aid-and-emergencies/too-many-teens-are-driving-drowsy

Health Risks of Using Cannabis are Higher in Adolescents Than in Adults

The following is excerpted from an online article posted by MedicalXpress.

Using cannabis on a regular basis may be significantly more dangerous for adolescents than adults, with adolescents showing higher levels of cannabis use disorder and reporting greater negative impacts on daily functioning than adults, in a new study led by the University of Bath in the UK.

The study, published in the European Archives of Psychiatry and Clinical Neuroscience, is a collaboration between the University of Bath, Kings College London and University College London.

It's the first to show that the quantity and strength of cannabis consumed does not account for the increased vulnerability to cannabis use disorder seen in young people.

For the study, 70 adults (aged 26 to 29) and 76 adolescents (aged 16 to 17)—all frequently using cannabis—were assessed every three months over the course of a year.

"Our analysis shows that adolescents scored consistently higher on a measure of cannabis use disorder symptoms over a 12-month period, compared to adults," said study first author Dr. Rachel Lees.

Most people who use cannabis will not experience serious long-term harms; however, around a quarter are thought to develop a cannabis use disorder, with adolescents showing greater vulnerability.

Dr. Lees said, "We found that 70% of the adolescents reported having failed to do what was normally expected of them because of using cannabis, whereas only 20% of the adults reported having experienced this. Also, 80% of the adolescents reported devoting a great deal of time to getting, using or recovering from cannabis use, compared to 50% of the adults.

"This is concerning as this group may not be aware of the symptoms of cannabis use disorder and may perceive cannabis to be associated with a low level of risk for harm."

Source: MedicalXpress
https://medicalxpress.com/news/2024-05-health-cannabis-higher-adolescents-adults.html

Study Shows Alarming Rise of Electronic Vaping Use in US Adolescents

The following is excerpted from an online article posted by MedicalXpress.

Electronic vapor products (EVPs), also known as e-cigarettes or vaping devices, have an allure because of their marketed image as a safer alternative to traditional cigarette smoking and for their variety of appealing flavors.

Yet, they contain many substances beyond nicotine, including propylene glycol, glycerin, flavorings and potentially harmful chemicals such as formaldehyde and metals, which could pose significant health risks such as respiratory disease, cardiovascular disease and cancer. Vaping also is strongly linked with a serious medical condition that damages the lungs due to the vitamin E acetate, an additive used in tetrahydrocannabinol-containing e-cigarettes.

Researchers from Florida Atlantic University's Schmidt College of Medicine explored temporal trends in EVP use from the Youth Risk Behavior Survey for ninth through 12th grades among 57,006 subjects from 2015 (earliest available data) to 2021 (most recently available data) from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Results of the study, published online ahead of print in Ochsner Journal, show alarming statistically significant and clinically important increases of the daily use of EVPs in U.S. adolescents.

Daily use of EVPs increased from 2% in 2015 to 7.2% in 2019, greater than three-and-one-half times increase. Although the percentage decreased to 5% in 2021, it was still more than a two-and-one-half increase since 2015. The researchers speculate that the effects of COVID-19, which included lockdowns and remote schooling, may have contributed to the decrease in 2021 but cautioned that further research is warranted.

Findings also show that in 2015, the percentage of EVP use was significantly higher in boys (2.8%) than girls (1.1%). By 2021, the percentage of EVP use was higher in girls (5.6%) than boys (4.5%), a one-and-one-quarter increase.

"EVP use increases risks of nicotine addiction, drug-seeking behavior, mood disorders and long-term risks of avoidable premature morbidities and mortality," said Charles H. Hennekens, M.D., Dr.PH, first author, first Sir Richard Doll Professor of Medicine and senior academic advisor, FAU Schmidt College of Medicine.

Source: MedicalXpress
https://medicalxpress.com/news/2024-05-alarming-electronic-vaping-adolescents.html

High Potency Cannabis Use in Teens Doubles Risk of Psychotic Episodes

The following is excerpted from an online article posted by Medical Daily.

Regular cannabis use is associated with the risk of mental health issues, including anxiety and depression. The use of high-potency cannabis in teen years almost doubles the risk of developing psychotic episodes in early adulthood compared to the use of those with lower potency, a study revealed.

Earlier studies have shown that the concentration of THC, the main psychoactive component of cannabis, has increased by 14% in the last five decades. In the latest study from the University of Bath published in the scientific journal, Addiction, researchers examined the link between early adolescent psychosis and cannabis potency.

The researchers used the Children of the 90s study, which had data of around 14,000 individuals from the time of their birth. The participants were asked about their cannabis use between the ages of 16 to 18. They were also inquired about the primary cannabis type and incidence of psychotic experiences such as hallucinations or delusions by the age of 24.

"Young people using higher-potency forms of cannabis are twice as likely to have experiences associated with psychosis, such as hallucinations and delusions. Importantly, the young people we asked had not previously reported these experiences before starting their cannabis use. This adds to the evidence that use of higher-potency cannabis may negatively impact mental health," the lead author, Dr. Lindsey Hines from the University of Bath Department of Psychology, said in a news release.

Source: Medical Daily
https://www.medicaldaily.com/high-potency-cannabis-use-teens-doubles-risk-psychotic-episodes-study-471738

Study Finds Heart Damage in 'Couch Potato' Kids

The following is excerpted from an online article posted by HealthDay.

Children and young adults who are couch potatoes could wind up with enlarged hearts, increasing their risk of heart attack, stroke, and early death.

Sedentary behavior contributed as much as 40% to the total increase in heart size between the ages of 17 and 24, researchers found.

Further, a lack of movement helped enlarge teens’ hearts independent of other risk factors like obesity or high blood pressure, researchers found.

Childhood and teenage sedentary behavior amounts to a “ticking time bomb,” researcher Andrew Agbaje said in a news release. He's an associate professor of clinical epidemiology and child health at the University of Eastern Finland in Kuopio.

“There is growing evidence that childhood sedentariness is a health threat that needs to be taken seriously,” he said.

On the other hand, children who regularly engaged in light physical activity reduced their increase in heart mass by 49%, researchers said.

“Light physical activity is an effective antidote to sedentariness. It is easy to accumulate three to four hours of light physical activity daily,” Agbaje said.

Examples of light physical activity include outdoor games, walking a dog, running errands, walking and biking to stores or to school, taking a stroll in the park, playing in the forest, gardening, and casual games of basketball, soccer, golf, frisbee, he said.

For the study, researchers followed nearly 1,700 young people in the U.K. from 11 through 24 years of age. Participants wore motion-tracking devices on their waists for four to seven days at ages 11, 15 and 24, to get a sense of how much physical activity they got.

The kids started out spending an average six hours a day in sedentary activities, which increased to nine hours a day by young adulthood, researchers said.

The study was published in the European Journal of Preventive Cardiology.

Source: HealthDay
https://www.healthday.com/health-news/child-health/study-finds-heart-damage-in-couch-potato-kids

Teens At Risk of Exposure to Toxic Lead and Uranium From Frequent Vaping

The following is excerpted from an online article posted by MedicalDaily

Although vaping has been considered a safer option compared to smoking cigarettes, researchers now warn that regular use of e-cigarettes carries its own set of risks.

Teenagers who frequently vape may face increased exposure to harmful metals like lead and uranium, which could potentially impact brain and organ development adversely, a new study revealed.

Based on the findings published in the journal Tobacco Control, the researchers recommend the implementation of regulations and prevention initiatives specifically aimed at teenagers.

Vaping is prevalent among teens, with approximately 14% of U.S. high school students (about 2.14 million) and over 3% of middle school students (about 380,000) reporting vaping within the last month of 2022.

For the study, researchers examined if vaping frequency and flavor correlate with potentially toxic metal levels. They used data from Wave 5 of the PATH Youth Study, analyzing responses from 1607 teens aged 13 to 17. The study included vaping flavors such as menthol or mint, fruit, sweets such as chocolate or desserts, tobacco, clove or spice, and alcoholic or non-alcoholic drinks.

Among the participants, 200 teens were included in the final analysis as exclusive vapers. Their urine samples were tested for the presence of cadmium, lead, and uranium. Based on their vaping frequency, they were categorized as occasional (1–5 days/month), intermittent (6–19 days), and frequent (20+ days) vapers.

"Analysis of the urine samples showed that lead levels were 40% higher among intermittent vapers, and 30% higher among frequent vapers than they were among occasional vapers. Urinary uranium levels were also twice as high among frequent vapers than among occasional vapers.

A comparison of flavor types indicated 90% higher uranium levels among vapers who preferred sweet flavors than among those opting for menthol/mint," the news release stated.

Since the study is observational, definitive conclusions cannot be made on toxic metal levels and vaping frequency/flavors. Also, the levels of toxic metals in vapes will vary by brand and type of vaporizer used (tank, pod, mod).

Source: MedicalDaily
https://www.medicaldaily.com/teens-risk-exposure-toxic-lead-uranium-frequent-vaping-study-471694

Use of Alcohol and E-Cigarettes Among Youth 'Alarming'

The following is excerpted from an online article posted by MedicalXpress.

The widespread use of alcohol and e-cigarettes among adolescents is "alarming", according to a report released by the World Health Organization's (WHO) European branch, which recommended measures to limit access.

Based on survey data from 280,000 young people aged 11, 13 and 15 in Europe, Central Asia and Canada, the WHO said it showed a "concerning picture" of substance use among young people.

"The long-term consequences of these trends are significant, and policy-makers cannot afford to ignore these alarming findings," the health body said.

The report found that 57 percent of 15-year-olds had drunk alcohol at least once, for girls the figure was 59 percent, compared to 56 percent of boys.

The WHO noted that overall drinking had decreased for boys, while it had increased for girls.

When it came to current use—defined as having drunk at least once in the last 30 days—eight percent of 11-year-old boys reported having done so, compared to five percent of girls.

But by age 15, girls had overtaken boys, with 38 percent of girls saying they had drunk at least once in the last 30 days, while only 36 percent of boys had.

The report also highlighted the increased use of e-cigarettes—often called vapes—among teenagers.

While smoking is declining, with 13 percent of 11-15 year-olds having smoked in 2022, two percentage points less than four years earlier, the report noted that many of them have instead adopted e-cigarettes—which have overtaken cigarettes among adolescents.

Around 32 percent of 15-year-olds have used an e-cigarette, and 20 percent reported having used one in the last 30 days.

Source: MedicalXpress
https://medicalxpress.com/news/2024-04-alcohol-cigarettes-youth-alarming.html