Limited psychological and social effects of lifetime cannabis use frequency: Evidence from a 30-year community study of 4,078 twins.

Background: Cannabis use is associated with outcomes like income, legal problems, and psychopathology. This finding rests largely on correlational research designs, which rely at best on statistical controls for confounding. Here, we control for unmeasured confounders using a longitudinal study of twins.

Addendum to "Evaluating substance use outcomes of recreational cannabis legalization using a unique co-twin control design".

An earlier version of this article was published in error. Our prior publication was missing reference to a prior study on this topic. Our prior research has not found an association between recreational cannabis legalization (RCL) and negative psychosocial and psychiatric outcomes.

Subjective effects as predictors of substance use disorders in a clinical sample: A longitudinal study.

Background: The literature on the association between subjective effects (SEs; i.e., how an individual perceives their physiological and psychological reactions to a drug) and substance use disorders (SUDs) is largely limited to community samples.

Evaluating substance use outcomes of recreational cannabis legalization using a unique co-twin control design.

As more states pass recreational cannabis legalization (RCL), we must understand how RCL affects substance use. The current study aims to examine the effect of RCL on lifetime and past-year use of cannabis, alcohol, tobacco, and other drugs, frequency of cannabis, alcohol, and tobacco use, co-use of cannabis with alcohol and tobacco, and consequences from cannabis and alcohol use. We used a unique, co-twin control design of twin pairs who were discordant for living in a state with RCL between 2018 and 2021.

The association between saving disposition and financial distress: A genetically informed approach.

Saving disposition, the tendency to save rather than consume, has been found to be associated with economic outcomes. People lacking the disposition to save are more likely to experience financial distress. This association could be driven by other economic factors, behavioral traits, or even genetic effects.

Recreational cannabis legalization has had limited effects on a wide range of adult psychiatric and psychosocial outcomes.

Background: The causal impacts of recreational cannabis legalization are not well understood due to the number of potential confounds. We sought to quantify possible causal effects of recreational cannabis legalization on substance use, substance use disorder, and psychosocial functioning, and whether vulnerable individuals are more susceptible to the effects of cannabis legalization than others.

Methods: We used a longitudinal, co-twin control design in 4043 twins ( = 240 pairs discordant on residence), first assessed in adolescence and now age 24-49, currently residing in states with different cannabis policies (40% resided in a recreationally legal state).

Impacts of recreational cannabis legalization on cannabis use: a longitudinal discordant twin study.

Aims: To estimate the effect of recreational legalization on cannabis use frequency and sources of variance across legal environments.

Design: Longitudinal discordant twin and gene-environment interaction models in twins recruited from birth records and assessed prospectively.

Setting: The United States, including states with different recreational cannabis policies before and after 2014, when recreational cannabis was first legalized.

The Neurocognitive Effects of Cannabis Across the Lifespan.

Purpose Of Review: This review examines the neurocognitive effects of cannabis and relevant developmental factors across adolescence (age 13-21), adulthood (21-65), and older adulthood (65+).

Recent Findings: Cannabis use is robustly associated with poorer neurocognitive functioning; however, studies that carefully control for confounds have often not found any evidence for impairment. Notably, the endocannabinoid system may underly how cannabis use affects neurocognitive functions, including heightened vulnerability during adolescence.

The impact of recreational cannabis legalization on youth: the Colorado experience.

Over the past two decades, cannabis policies have liberalized in the United States, culminating in the legalization of recreational cannabis in Colorado and Washington state in 2012. This review will focus on the impact of recreational cannabis legalization in Colorado. While the prevalence of past-year and past-month cannabis use has remained relatively steady among adolescents post-legalization, the prevalence of young adult use has continued to rise.

Executive functions as a mediator of childhood maltreatment on adult psychopathology: A longitudinal mediation analysis comparing maltreatment factor models.

Background: Childhood maltreatment (CM), executive functions (EFs), and psychiatric disorders all correlate highly. Changes in EFs during adolescence related to CM present a possible mediating mechanism for the development of psychiatric disorders, yet no study has analyzed this longitudinally while comparing predictive capacity of different CM factor structures. We hypothesized that changes in EFs from adolescence to adulthood would mediate, in part, associations between CM, internalizing disorders (INT), and anti-social personality disorder (ASPD) while different subtypes of CM would differentially predict INT and ASPD.

The effects of cannabis use on physical health: A co-twin control study.

Background: Research on the influence of cannabis use on anthropometrics, cardiovascular and pulmonary function, and other indicators of physical health has reported mixed results. We examined whether cannabis frequency is associated with physical health outcomes phenotypically and after controlling for shared genetic and environmental factors via a longitudinal co-twin control design.

Methods: We tested the phenotypic associations of adolescent, young adult, and adult cannabis frequency with adult physical health.

Development and validation of a prediction model for opioid use disorder among youth.

Background: Youth are vulnerable to opioid use initiation and its complications. With growing rates of opioid overdose, strategies to identify youth at risk of opioid use disorder (OUD) to efficiently focus prevention interventions are needed. This study developed and validated a prediction model of OUD in youth aged 14-18 years.

An Approach to Biomarker Discovery of Cannabis Use Utilizing Proteomic, Metabolomic, and Lipidomic Analyses.

Relatively little is known about the molecular pathways influenced by cannabis use in humans. We used a multi-omics approach to examine protein, metabolomic, and lipid markers in plasma differentiating between cannabis users and nonusers to understand markers associated with cannabis use. Eight discordant twin pairs and four concordant twin pairs for cannabis use completed a blood draw, urine and plasma toxicology testing, and provided information about their past 30-day cannabis use and other substance use patterns.

Marijuana Legalization in Colorado: Increasing Potency, Changing Risk Perceptions, and Emerging Public Health Concerns for Youth.

Background: Marijuana legalization occurred gradually in Colorado through political processes.

Objectives: This review aimed at describing the history of marijuana legalization and correlated shifts in product availability, use patterns, and risk perceptions and describes associated emerging concerns with this process for adolescents and young adults.

Methods: This review focuses on the history of marijuana legalization and correlated shifts in product availability, use patterns, and risk perceptions.

Sleep deficits and cannabis use behaviors: an analysis of shared genetics using linkage disequilibrium score regression and polygenic risk prediction.

Study Objectives: Estimate the genetic relationship of cannabis use with sleep deficits and an eveningness chronotype.

Methods: We used linkage disequilibrium score regression (LDSC) to analyze genetic correlations between sleep deficits and cannabis use behaviors. Secondly, we generated sleep deficit polygenic risk score (PRS) and estimated their ability to predict cannabis use behaviors using linear and logistic regression.

Familial factors may not explain the effect of moderate-to-heavy cannabis use on cognitive functioning in adolescents: a sibling-comparison study.

Aims: To examine whether moderate adolescent cannabis use has neurocognitive effects that are unexplained by familial confounds, which prior family-controlled studies may not have identified.

Design: A quasi-experimental, sibling-comparison design was applied to a prospective, observational study of adolescents with moderate cannabis use. Participants were recruited from 2001 to 2006 (mean age = 17 years).

Leveraging genome-wide data to investigate differences between opioid use vs. opioid dependence in 41,176 individuals from the Psychiatric Genomics Consortium.

To provide insights into the biology of opioid dependence (OD) and opioid use (i.e., exposure, OE), we completed a genome-wide analysis comparing 4503 OD cases, 4173 opioid-exposed controls, and 32,500 opioid-unexposed controls, including participants of European and African descent (EUR and AFR, respectively).

Adolescent Externalizing Psychopathology and Its Prospective Relationship to Marijuana Use Development from Age 14 to 30: Replication Across Independent Longitudinal Twin Samples.

Externalizing psychopathology in early adolescence is a highly heritable risk factor for drug use, yet how it relates to marijuana use development is not well-characterized. We evaluate this issue in independent twin samples from Colorado (N = 2608) and Minnesota (N = 3630), assessed from adolescence to early adulthood. We used a biometric latent growth model of marijuana use frequency with data from up to five waves of assessment from ages 14 to 30, to examine change in marijuana use and its relationship with a factor model of adolescent externalizing psychopathology.

The Void in Clinician Counseling of Cannabis Use.

As more states legalize cannabis for medical use, people increasingly use cannabis to treat medical conditions. Well-documented harms of cannabis use include increased risk of fatal auto accidents, neurocognitive deficits, and increased risk of addiction. Observational data supports the use of cannabis for pain, nausea and vomiting related to chemotherapy, and multiple sclerosis spasticity symptoms.