Influence of genetics on cannabis dependence in adolescent females

Researchers have identified that a variant in a particular gene, that is found in about one-third of people, increases vulnerability to THC in females. It also has a large-scale impact on brain regions and pathways responsible for processing reward.

The brain's endocannabinoid system regulates the activity of cannabinoids that are normally produced by the body to influence brain development and regulate mood as well as those from external sources, such as the psychoactive ingredient THC, also known as D9-tetrahydrocannabinol, which is found in cannabis.

An enzyme called fatty acid amide hydrolase (FAAH) breaks down a cannabinoid called anandamide that is naturally found in the brain and is most closely related to THC, helping to remove it from circulation.

In the study which was published in 'Science Advances,' the researchers examined mice harbouring a human gene variant that causes FAAH to degrade more easily, increasing overall anandamide levels in the brain.

From the preclinical research by Weill Cornell Medicine investigators, they discovered that the variant resulted in an overactive reward circuit in female--but not male adolescent mice--that resulted in a higher preference for THC in females.

Dr. Caitlin Burgdorf, recent doctoral graduate from the Weill Cornell Graduate School of Medical Sciences, and the lead author said "Our study shows that a variant in the FAAH gene, which is found in about one-third of people, increases vulnerability to THC in females and has large-scale impact on brain regions and pathways responsible for processing reward."

"Our findings suggest that genetics can be a contributing factor for increased susceptibility to cannabis dependence in select populations," Caitlin added.

The result showcased that female mouse with the FAAH variant showed an increased preference for the environment in which they'd been exposed to THC over a neutral environment when they were exposed to the substance during adolescence, and the effect persisted into adulthood. 

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Evaluating safety and efficacy of migraine preventive treatment for children, adolescents

Cephalalgia, the official journal of the International Headache Society, published the article entitled "Cinnarizine and sodium valproate as the preventive agents of pediatric migraine: A randomized double-blind placebo-controlled trial", by Man Amanat, and Mahmoud Reza Ashrafi from the Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.

Migraine affects about 8% of children and adolescents. About half of them continue to experience it into adulthood, leading to remarkable disability and a substantial social and financial burden to the patient and society. Early diagnosis and interventions can diminish the burden of the condition. 

Preventive pharmacologic treatment should be recommended when the frequency of headaches is more than 4 attacks per month or when the quality of life, school attendance or daily activities are restricted. Studies show that migraine preventive treatment can decrease the global burden of migraine. Although various preventive medications have been used for migraine in adults, few have been suggested in a pediatric population.

This paper studied the safety and efficacy of cinnarizine and sodium valproate for migraine prophylaxis in 149 children and adolescents (49 in the cinnarizine, 51 in the sodium valproate, and 49 in the placebo group).

Cinnarizine is a medicine that belongs to the category of antihistaminic medications. It is used to treat problems associated with the inner ear and the brain, dizziness, and sickness associated with motion sickness. Cinnarizine is used to relieve symptoms of motion sickness and balance (vestibular) disorders such as tinnitus (ringing in the ears), vertigo, nausea, and vomiting, as well as Ménières disease (a disorder of the inner ear).

Sodium valproate is a medication primarily used to treat epilepsy and bipolar disorder and to prevent migraine headaches. It is an anticonvulsant drug that is approved for use in epilepsy and bipolar disorder. It has also been used for neuropathic pain and migraine prophylaxis.

The medications were considered effective in reducing (more than 50%) the (frequency) number of migraine attacks and intensity, compared to the placebo group.

"Cinnarizine and sodium valproate may be useful for migraine preventive treatment for children and adolescents. Both medications are safe and well-tolerated in terms of adverse events, but cinnarizine could be considered as a new preventive option for pediatric migraine", explained the authors. Long term safety regarding weight gain should be studied in future trials.

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Scientists observe MRI to predict intelligence levels in children

Researchers from the Skoltech Center for Computational and Data-Intensive Science and Engineering (CDISE) took 4th place in the international MRI-based adolescent intelligence prediction competition. The results of their study by the Skoltech scientists were published in the journal Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development Neurocognitive Prediction.

In 2013, the US National Institutes of Health (NIH) launched the first grand-scale study of its kind in adolescent brain research, Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development – to see if and how teenagers’ hobbies and habits affect their further brain development.

Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) is a common technique used to obtain images of human internal organs and tissues. Scientists wondered whether the intelligence level can be predicted from an MRI brain image. The NIH database contains a total of over 11,000 structural and functional MRI images of children aged 9-10.

NIH scientists launched an international competition, making the enormous NIH database available to a broad community for the first time ever. The participants were given the task of building a predictive model based on brain images.

In their recent study, Skoltech researchers focused on predicting the intelligence level, or the so-called “fluid intelligence”, which characterizes the biological abilities of the nervous system and has little to do with acquired knowledge or skills. Importantly, they made predictions for both the fluid intelligence level and the target variable independent from age, gender, brain size or MRI scanner used.

“Our team develops deep learning methods for computer vision tasks in MRI data analysis, among other things. In this study, we applied ensembles of classifiers to 3D of super precision neural networks: with this approach, one can classify an image as it is, without first reducing its dimension and, therefore, without losing valuable information,” explains CDISE PhD student, Ekaterina Kondratyeva.

The results of the study helped find the correlation between the child’s “fluid intelligence” and brain anatomy. Although the prediction accuracy is less than perfect, the models produced during this competition will help shed light on various aspects of cognitive, social, emotional and physical development of adolescents. This line of research will definitely continue to expand.

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Social Media Use Increases Anxiety Symptoms in Adolescents

Researchers have found that social media use, television viewing and computer use, but not video gaming, are linked to an increase in anxiety symptoms among adolescents. The study, shows that a higher than average frequency of social media use, television viewing and computer use over four years predicts more severe symptoms of anxiety for the same time frame. 

"These findings suggest that one way to help teens manage anxiety could be to help them limit the amount of time they spend in front of screens", said a study researcher.

Over and above a potential common vulnerability to both sets of behaviours, the study demonstrates that if a teen experienced an increase in their social media use, television viewing and computer use in a given year which surpassed their overall average level of use, then his or her anxiety symptoms also increased in that same year. 

Furthermore, when adolescents decreased their social media use, television viewing, and computer use, their symptoms of anxiety became less severe. Thus, no lasting effects were found. "It appears that computer use is uniquely associated to increases in anxiety, potentially in relation to using the computer for homework activities, but this needs further research," said the study lead author.

For the findings, the research team followed almost 4,000 Canadian teenagers from age 12 to 16 who were part of the Co-Venture Trial. Each year of high school, teens were asked to self-report time spent in front of digital screens and specified amount of time spent engaging in four different types of screen time activities (social media, television, video gaming and computer use).

Moreover, the teenagers completed self-reported questionnaires on various anxiety symptoms at ages 12 to 16. The study findings indicate social media use, television viewing and computer use are predictors of anxiety in adolescence.

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Girls with early puberty may develop migraine

Adolescent girls who attain early puberty may also have a greater chance of developing migraine headaches, suggest researchers.

We know that the percentage of girls and boys who have migraine is pretty much the same until menstruation begins. When the menstrual period starts in girls, the prevalence goes way up,but what our data suggests is that it occurs even before that, said one of the researchers.

About 10 % of school-age children suffer from  migraine, according to the study . As adolescence approaches, the incidence of migraine increases rapidly in girls and by age 17 about 8% of boys and 23% of girls have experienced migraine.

The girls ranged in age from 8-20 and the study took place over a 10-year period beginning in 2004. Girls enrolled in the study at age 8-10 were examined during study visit every 6-12 months. Researchers determined when they showed initial signs of thelarche ( breast development), pubarche ( pubic hair growth) and menarche ( start of menstrual periods).

Girls answered a headache questionnaire to find out if they suffered from migraine headache, no migraine or probable migraine the latter is defined as meeting all the diagnostic criteria for migraine except one. The average age at which they completed the survey was 16.

Of those surveyed, 85 girls (1%) were diagnosed with migraine headache while 53 (7%) had a probable migraine and 623 (82%) had no migraine.

Researchers found that girls with migraine had an earlier age of thelarche ( breast development) and the onset of menarche ( menstrual periods) than those with no migraine.

On the average breast, development occurred 4 months earlier in those with migraine while menstruation started 5 months earlier. There was no difference in the age of pubarche between those with migraine and no migraine.

There was a 25% increases in the chance of having migraine for each year earlier that a girl experienced either thelarche or menarche. This suggests a strong relationship between early puberty and the development of migraine in adolescent girls, said the lead investigator.

The age of onset of thelarche, pubarche or menarche did not differ between those with probable migraine and no migraine, she said.

Previous research suggested that migraine often starts with the onset of menstrual cycles during menarche in adolescent girls. But this study looks at earlier stages of puberty such as thelarche and pubarche, the researcher explained.

To suggest the origins of migraine may occur actually before menstrual periods begin is pretty novel. At each of these stages, different hormones are starting to appear in girls. During pubarche,  testosterone and androgens are present and during thelarche, there is the very 1st exposure to estrogen. Menarche is when a more mature hormonal pattern emerges. Our study implies that the very 1st exposure to estrogen could be the starting point for migraine in some adolescent girls. It may be the Big Bang Theory of migraine, he said.

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Adolescents exercising to gain weight are prone to disordered eating

Maintaining health is a good habit. But a new study has pointed out that some adolescents who indulge in exercises to gain weight are prone to so-called muscularity-oriented disordered eating behaviours.

The findings published stated that 22 % of males and 5 % of females aged 18-24 exhibit these disordered eating behaviours.

These disorders are defined as including at least one of the following eating more or differently to gain weight or bulk up, and use of dietary supplements or anabolic steroids to achieve the same goal.
If neglected or left unchecked, these behaviours y  escalate to muscle dysmorphia, characterized by rigid diet, obsessive over-exercising and extreme preoccupation with the physique.

Unlike anorexia nervosa, which may be easily identified by parents or paediatricians, disordered eating to increase bulk may masquerade as healthy habits and because of this, it tends to go unnoticed, said the 1st author of the study.

He also added that at its most extreme, it can lead to heart failure due to insufficient calories and overexertion, as well as muscle dysmorphia, which is associated with social withdrawal and depression.

The study incorporated 14,891 young adults from U.S., who were followed for 7 years. The researchers wanted to see if the early data, when the participants' average age was 15, revealed something about their perceptions and habits that may serve as warning signs.

they found that boys who exercised specifically to gain weight had 142 % higher odds of this type of disordered eating. In girls, the odds were increased by 248%.

On the other hand, boys who perceived themselves as being underweight had 56% odds, in girls, the odds were 271 % higher.

Additionally, being of black race bolstered odds by 66% in boys and 191% in girls.

In young adulthood, 6.9% of males reported supplement use to gain weight or build muscle and 2.8% said they used anabolic steroids. While supplement use in young women was significantly lower at 0.7% and 0.4% respectively.

Supplements can cause liver and kidney damage. Anabolic steroids can cause both long-term and short-term health issues, including shrunken testicles, stunted growth and heart disease, he noted.

He also pointed out some clues that indicate hinting at muscle dysmorphia include a highly restrictive diet that omits fats and carbohydrates, compulsive weighing and checking of appearance, and extensive time dedicated to exercise that may cut into social activities.

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Exercise boosts quality of sleep in teens

Exercising for more than usual may lead to improved quality and duration of sleep at night, according to a study.

The study found that getting more exercise than normal- or being more sedentary than usual- for one day, may be enough to affect sleep later that night.

It found that for every extra  hour of moderate to vigorous physical activity, the teens fell asleep 18 minutes earlier, slept 10 minutes longer and had about 1% greater sleep maintenance efficiency that night.

Adolescence is a critical period to obtain adequate sleep , as sleep can affect cognitive and classroom performance, stress and eating behaviours, said a researcher.

The research suggests that encouraging adolescents to spend more time exercising during the day may help their sleep health later that night, he said.

In contrast, the researchers also found that being sedentary more during the day was associated with worse sleep health.

When participants were sedentary for minutes during the day, they fell asleep and woke up later but slept for a shorter amount of time overall.

You can think of these relationships between physical activity and sleep almost like a teeter totter, said a Prof.

When you're getting more steps, essentially your sleep begins earlier, expands in duration and is more efficient.Whereas if you're spending more time sedentary, it's like sitting on your sleep health- sleep length and quality goes down.

While previous research suggests that adolescents need 8-10 hours of sleep at night, recent estimates suggest that as many as 73% of adolescents are getting less than 8 hours of sleep.

Previous research also found that people who are generally more physically active tend to sleep longer and have better quality of sleep.

However, the researchers, said less has been known about whether day-to-day changes in physical activity and sedentary behaviour affected sleep length and quality.

They used data from 417 families from  across 20 states in U.S.

When participants were 15 years old, they wore accelerometers on their wrists and hips to measure sleep and physical activity for 1 week.

One of the strength of this study, was using devices to get precise measurements about sleep and activity instead of asking participants about their own behaviour, which can sometimes be skewed, he said.

The hip device measured activity during the day, and the wrist device measured what time the participants fell asleep and woke up and also how efficiency they slept, which means how often they're sleeping versus tossing and turning , the researcher said.

In addition to finding links between how physical activity affects sleep later that night, the researchers also found connections between sleep and activity the following day.

They found that when the participants slept longer and woke up later, they engaged in less moderate -to- vigorous physical activity and sedentary behaviour the next day.

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Exercising for more than usual may lead to improved quality and duration of sleep at night, according to a study on teenagers published Wednesday. The study in Scientific Reports journal found that getting more exercise than normal – or being more sedentary than usual – for one day may be enough to affect sleep later that night. It found that for every extra hour of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity, the teens fell asleep 18 minutes earlier, slept 10 minutes longer and had about one per cent greater sleep maintenance efficiency that night.

http://www.millenniumpost.in/features/exercise-boosts-quality-of-sleep-in-teens-354386Exercising