Adolescent Brain Surface Area Pre- and Post-Cannabis and Alcohol Initiation

 It has always been an important topic that has ingrained in our heads as we grow up the idea of drugs are not suitable for us, especially when it comes to impacting our brain. Despite the consequences, teenagers in this day and age are still using alcohol and cannabis at a young age. Studies have shown that alcohol and cannabis affect our gray matter volume and thickness in teenagers. In a healthy human growth, it’s important to emphasize that gray matter decreases and white matter increases. The purpose of this study is to show how these two types of drugs can mess with our brain before and after use. I decided to write on this study because it’s important to point out the significant issue in this day and age and it’s interesting to see what exactly happened to the brain before and after use of these two drugs. The purpose of this study is to gain more knowledge on the effect of alcohol and cannabis use on the surface of the brain. There are well known consequences that affect teens when it comes to alcohol and cannabis use. This study goes in-depth to better understand what happened to teenager’s brains after alcohol, cannabis, and a combination of both. In this study, it included participants ranging from ages 12 to 14 and group them into three categories, which includes, alcohol use initiators, alcohol use initiators, alcohol and cannabis use initiators, and individuals with minimal substance use.The method used is participants are followed for six years until they are 17-21. The result showed that there is a declined in surface area over time and a tremendous decrease in the bilateral medial orbitofrontal cortex in the alcohol category compared to the other two categories. This study showed that alcohol impacted the brain negatively and also shows that cannabis withholds the negative effects of alcohol on the brain. The results are shocking to me because I’ve always thought that these substances impact the brain negatively. But surprisingly, cannabis can help to prevent the decrease of the cerebral cortex. The most important results were the benefits of cannabis and how it can counter attack the negative impact of alcohol on the brain. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6308167