The Interactive Effects of Caffeine and Cannabis Use on Neurocognitive Outcomes in Adolescents and Young Adults

University Of California, San Diego, La Jolla CA

Investigators

Abstract

PROJECT SUMMARY/ABSTRACT. Nearly 87% of adolescents consume caffeine in some form, and both rates and quantities of caffeine consumption increase as adolescents transition into young adulthood. Although investigations into adult caffeine use are well studied, there is a paucity of research on the effects of early adolescent caffeine initiation and chronic use. Of further concern, these increases in caffeine consumption coincide with increases in other substance use including cannabis use, with 37% of high school seniors reporting past year cannabis use. Preclinical models have shown that even after caffeine cessation, adolescent caffeine exposure can lead to increased susceptibility of future substance use. Additionally, some preclinical models have demonstrated that concurrent caffeine and cannabis use exposure may lead to decreases in cognitive performance mediated through hippocampal dysfunction. Despite this early evidence, there have been limited longitudinal investigations into adolescent caffeine consumption and concurrent cannabis use and no studies examining their interactive effect on cognition in human adolescents. The primary aim of the current K08 proposal is to address this gap in the literature by examining longitudinal trends in caffeine consumption; measure the impact of caffeine exposure on future cannabis use; and investigate how the combined effect of caffeine and alcohol use impacts neurocognitive trajectories through random intercept cross-lagged panel models. By leveraging data from the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD) study, long-term consist trends in caffeine consumption and substance use can be assessed throughout adolescence. Additionally, harmonized studies such as the Protracted Understanding of Fluctuating Substance use and Severity Study (PUFFS) can be employed to gain an understanding of how these trajectories may change as adolescents transition into young adulthood. As both studies incorporate detailed clinical interviews of substance use, including caffeine use, aggregates of total self-reported caffeine use across multiple caffeine modalities are collected, which provides a novel opportunity to calculate estimates of overall caffeine consumption. The proposed project offers Dr. Wallace an opportunity to gain additional training in adolescent caffeine research, which is largely missing from the adolescent addiction field, as well as mentorship in complex longitudinal statistical modeling across multiple datasets. A mentorship team of experts will bridge these unique fields to improve our understanding of the effects of caffeine exposure and concurrent cannabis use on adolescent cognitive development. These experiences would build off of Dr. Wallace’s previous experiences with cross- sectional cannabis use research on the developing brain. At the conclusion of this award, Dr. Wallace will meet his goal of career independence as a clinical research scientist with expertise in adolescent caffeine consumption in the context of addiction and longitudinal analyses, which will be exemplified by submission of an R01.