Systematic review and meta-analysis of socio-cognitive and socio-affective processes association with adolescent substance use.

Background: Social impairments are important features of a substance use disorder diagnosis; and recent models suggest early impairments in socio-cognitive and -affective processes may predict future use. However, no systematic reviews are available on this topic.

Methods: We conducted a systematic review and meta-analyses exploring the association between social-cognitive and -affective processes (empathy, callous-unemotional (CU) traits, theory of mind, and social cognition) and substance use frequency (alcohol, cannabis, general drug use). We examined moderating effects of study design, gender, age, and weather conduct problems were controlled for. We also review brain studies related to social cognition and substance use disorder (SUD) risk.

Results: Systematic review suggested a negative association for positively valenced constructs with substance use but mixed results on the negatively valenced construct CU traits. Meta-analyses revealed moderate positive association between CU traits with alcohol and general drug use but no significance with cannabis use. Moderate effect sizes were found for CU traits in youth predicting severity of substance use by late adolescence and significantly accounted for variance independently of conduct problems. Significant moderators included gender proportions, sample type, and age. Neuroimaging meta-analysis indicated 10 coordinates that were different in youth at a high risk/with SUD compared to controls. Three of these coordinates associate with theory of mind and social cognition.

Conclusion: Socio-cognitive and -affective constructs demonstrate an association with current and future substance use, and neural differences are present when performing social cognitive tasks in regions with strongest associations with theory of mind and social cognition.