Cannabis cue-reactivity in cannabis use disorder: Diverging evidence in two distinct cannabis cultures.

Background: Cannabis policies and attitudes play a role in the development and presentation of cannabis use disorder (CUD), but it is unclear how these factors are related to biomarkers of addiction. The current study examined cross-cultural differences in cannabis attitudes, cannabis cue-reactivity in the brain and its associations with cannabis use measures and cannabis attitudes.

Design: Cross-sectional fMRI study.

Examining associations between brain morphology in late childhood and early alcohol or tobacco use initiation in adolescence: Findings from a large prospective cohort.

A prominent challenge in understanding neural consequences of substance use involves disentangling predispositional risk factors from resulting consequences of substance use. Existing literature has identified pre-existing brain variations as vulnerability markers for substance use throughout adolescence. As early initiation of use is an important predictor for later substance use problems, we examined whether pre-existing brain variations are associated with early initiation of use.

From everyday life to measurable problematic smartphone use: The development and validation of the Smartphone Use Problems Identification Questionnaire (SUPIQ).

Background And Aims: Problematic smartphone use (PSU) has gained attention, but its definition remains debated. This study aimed to develop and validate a new scale measuring PSU-the Smartphone Use Problems Identification Questionnaire (SUPIQ).

Methods: Using two separate samples, a university community sample (N = 292) and a general population sample (N = 397), we investigated: (1) the construct validity of the SUPIQ through exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses; (2) the convergent validity of the SUPIQ with correlation analyses and the visualized partial correlation network analyses; (3) the psychometric equivalence of the SUPIQ across two samples through multigroup confirmatory factor analyses; (4) the explanatory power of the SUPIQ over the Short Version of Smartphone Addiction Scale (SAS-SV) with hierarchical multiple regressions.

Associations between hair-derived cannabinoid levels, self-reported use, and cannabis-related problems.

Rationale: As cannabis potency and cannabis use are increasing in newly legalized markets, it is increasingly important to measure and examine the effects of cannabinoid exposure.

Objectives: The current study aims to assess how hair-derived cannabinoid concentrations - offering insight into three-month cumulative exposure - are associated with common self-report measures of cannabis use and cannabis use-related problems.

Methods: 74 near-daily dependent cannabis users self-reported their quantity of cannabis use, cannabis use-related problems, and estimated cannabis potency.

Attentional Biases and Their Association with Substance-Use-Related Problems and Addictive Behaviors: The Utility of a Gamified Value-Modulated Attentional Capture Task.

Background: Attentional biases towards reward stimuli have been implicated in substance use-related problems. The value-modulated attentional capture (VMAC) task assesses such reward-related biases. The VMAC task widely used in lab studies tends to be monotonous and susceptible to low effort.

Computational simulation of transcranial magnetic stimulation-induced electric fields in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex of heavy cannabis using individuals.

We aimed to investigate the influence of demographic and clinical modulators on the strength of transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS)-induced electric fields (EFs) in the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (lDLPFC) in heavy cannabis using individuals. Structural T1-weighted magnetic resonance imaging scans of 20 heavy cannabis using individuals and 22 non-cannabis users (the controls) in the age range of 18-25 were retrieved. Computational simulations of TMS-induced EFs in the lDLPFC were performed.

Does nitrous oxide addiction exist? An evaluation of the evidence for the presence and prevalence of substance use disorder symptoms in recreational nitrous oxide users.

Background: Prevalence of nitrous oxide (N O) use appears to be increasing in numerous countries worldwide, and excessive use has been associated with physical and mental problems. Because there currently is no consensus whether N O has addictive potential, we aimed to evaluate the evidence for the presence and prevalence of DSM-5 substance use disorder (SUD) symptoms in N O users.

Analysis: A literature search was conducted to assess the evidence for the presence of any of the 11 DSM-5 SUD symptoms in N O users and the prevalence experiencing those symptoms.

A cross-cultural fMRI investigation of cannabis approach bias in individuals with cannabis use disorder.

Introduction: As cannabis policies and attitudes become more permissive, it is crucial to examine how the legal and social environment influence neurocognitive mechanisms underlying cannabis use disorder (CUD). The current study aimed to assess whether cannabis approach bias, one of the mechanisms proposed to underlie CUD, differed between environments with distinct recreational cannabis policies (Amsterdam, The Netherlands (NL) and Dallas, Texas, United States of America (TX)) and whether individual differences in cannabis attitudes affect those differences.

Methods: Individuals with CUD (NL-CUD: 64; TX-CUD: 48) and closely matched non-using controls (NL-CON: 50; TX-CON: 36) completed a cannabis approach avoidance task (CAAT) in a 3T MRI.

Brain volumes in alcohol use disorder: Do females and males differ? A whole-brain magnetic resonance imaging mega-analysis.

Emerging evidence suggests distinct neurobiological correlates of alcohol use disorder (AUD) between sexes, which however remain largely unexplored. This work from ENIGMA Addiction Working Group aimed to characterize the sex differences in gray matter (GM) and white matter (WM) correlates of AUD using a whole-brain, voxel-based, multi-tissue mega-analytic approach, thereby extending our recent surface-based region of interest findings on a nearly matching sample using a complementary methodological approach. T1-weighted magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) data from 653 people with AUD and 326 controls was analyzed using voxel-based morphometry.

Alcohol cue reactivity in the brain: Age-related differences in the role of social processes in addiction in male drinkers.

Social attunement (SA)-the tendency to harmonize behavior with the social environment-has been proposed to drive the escalation of alcohol use in adolescence, while reducing use in adulthood. Little is known about how heightened social sensitivity in adolescence may interact with neural alcohol cue reactivity-a marker of alcohol use disorder-and its relationship to alcohol use severity over time. The aims of this study were to test whether (1) adolescents and adults differ in social alcohol cue reactivity in the nucleus accumbens, anterior cingulate cortex, and right medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC), and (2) age moderates the relationship between social alcohol cue reactivity and social attunement, measures of drinking at baseline, and changes in drinking over time.

Development and Validation of the Dutch Social Attunement Questionnaire (SAQ).

The social plasticity hypothesis proposes that i.e., the adaptation to and harmonization with one's environment, plays a crucial role in the risk for developing alcohol use disorders (AUDs) during adolescence, whereas in adulthood it paradoxically may make individuals more sensitive to the social pull to reduce drinking.

Working memory-related brain activity in cannabis use disorder: The role of cross-cultural differences in cannabis attitudes.

Cannabis legislation and attitudes towards use are changing. Given that evidence from cultural neuroscience research suggests that culture influences the neurobiological mechanisms underlying behaviour, it is of great importance to understand how cannabis legislation and attitudes might affect the brain processes underlying cannabis use disorder. Brain activity of 100 dependent cannabis users and 84 controls was recorded during an N-back working memory (WM) task in participants from the Netherlands (NL; users = 60, controls = 52) and Texas, USA (TX; users = 40, controls = 32).

Drinking motives, personality traits and life stressors-identifying pathways to harmful alcohol use in adolescence using a panel network approach.

Background And Aims: Models of alcohol use risk suggest that drinking motives represent the most proximal risk factors on which more distal factors converge. However, little is known about how distinct risk factors influence each other and alcohol use on different temporal scales (within a given moment versus over time). We aimed to estimate the dynamic associations of distal (personality and life stressors) and proximal (drinking motives) risk factors, and their relationship to alcohol use in adolescence and early adulthood using a novel graphical vector autoregressive (GVAR) panel network approach.

Cannabis Use Disorder Symptoms in Weekly Cannabis Users: A Network Comparison Between Daily Cigarette Users and Nondaily Cigarette Users.

Concurrent use (co-use) of cannabis and tobacco is common and associated with worse clinical outcomes compared with cannabis use only. The mechanisms and interactions of cannabis use disorder (CUD) symptoms underlying co-use remain poorly understood. We examined differences in the symptom presence and symptom network configurations between weekly cannabis users who use tobacco daily (co-users, =789) or non- or nondaily (nondaily co-users, =428).

Direct Effects of Cannabis Intoxication on Motivations for Softer and Harder Drug Use: An Experimental Approach to the Gateway Hypothesis.

This study experimentally tested whether there is a gateway-type effect of cannabis administration on tobacco and cocaine motivation and whether motivational responses predicted use 6 months later. A 2 (condition: active cannabis vs. placebo joint)×3 (substance stimulus type: tobacco, cannabis, and cocaine) factor within-subjects design for both implicit and explicit motivation.

The impact of age on olfactory alcohol cue-reactivity: A functional magnetic resonance imaging study in adolescent and adult male drinkers.

Background: Adolescence is marked not only by rapid surges in the prevalence of alcohol use disorders (AUDs) but also by remarkable recovery rates, as most adolescent-onset AUDs naturally resolve over time. Little is known about the differential vulnerability of adolescents and adults. Therefore, this study aimed to unravel the moderating role of age by comparing neural alcohol cue-reactivity, an important AUD biomarker, between low-to-high beer-drinking adolescent (n = 50, 16 to 18 years), and adult (n = 51, 30 to 35 years) males matched on drinking severity.

Age-dependent effects of tobacco smoke and nicotine on cognition and the brain: A systematic review of the human and animal literature comparing adolescents and adults.

Cigarette smoking is often initiated during adolescence and an earlier age of onset is associated with worse health outcomes later in life. Paradoxically, the transition towards adulthood also marks the potential for recovery, as the majority of adolescents are able to quit smoking when adulthood emerges. This systematic review aimed to evaluate the evidence from both human and animal studies for the differential impact of adolescent versus adult repeated and long-term tobacco and nicotine exposure on cognitive and brain outcomes.

Gender differences in cannabis use disorder symptoms: A network analysis.

Background: While cannabis use in women is increasing worldwide, research into gender differences in cannabis use disorder (CUD) symptomology is lacking. In response to limited effectiveness of addiction treatment, research focus has been shifting from clinical diagnoses towards interactions between symptoms, as patterns of symptoms and their interactions could be crucial in understanding etiological mechanisms in addiction. The aim of this study was to evaluate the CUD symptom network and assess whether there are gender differences therein.

Cognitive training and remediation interventions for substance use disorders: a Delphi consensus study.

Aims: Substance use disorders (SUD) are associated with cognitive deficits that are not always addressed in current treatments, and this hampers recovery. Cognitive training and remediation interventions are well suited to fill the gap for managing cognitive deficits in SUD. We aimed to reach consensus on recommendations for developing and applying these interventions.