Adolescents' development and drug effects

Hello everyone. My name is José Luis Vázquez Martínez. Today I will share with you information on adolescents’ development and drug use.

Adolescence is a transition development stage marked by puberty’s onset, maturation of sexual organs, the termination of physical growth, and setting the brain to perform specialized tasks like abstract and multi-dimensional thinking. From a social standpoint, during adolescence, people prepare for their future adult roles.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), adolescence is the phase of life between childhood and adulthood, from ages 10 to 19. It is a unique stage of human development and a crucial time for laying the foundations of good health.

Besides the most evident changes adolescents experience, such as rapid physical, cognitive and psychosocial growth, their brains go through multiple highly dynamic and synchronized development processes, some of which continue into adulthood.

What happens inside the adolescents’ brains?

This clip, constructed from MRI scans of healthy children and teens, compresses 15 years of brain development (ages 5-20) into just a few seconds. The time-lapse movie is a representation of the neuronal pruning process, which remodels the brain’s circuitry. Red indicates more gray matter, blue less gray matter. The changes in color from yellow/red to blue show the pruning process.

As works-in-progress, adolescent brains are vulnerable to the adverse effects of multiple elements like psychoactive substances and contextual aspects such as socioeconomic status and demographic factors. Dr. Nora Volkow co-authored a study published in November 2020, which found that family income best explained individual differences in children’s cognitive test scores, cortical volume, and thickness.

Nowadays, we know that drugs can change the brain. Over the last few decades, research in the neurosciences field has yielded evidence of the close relationship between the brain structures and drug-using behaviors, susceptibility to drug use, potential short and long-term effects of substance use, and the critical role of environmental factors.

What leads someone to initiate drug use and the reasons why a person may become drug-dependent involve potent interactions between the brain and a series of biological, psychological, and social factors.

Stages of adolescence

There is consensus on the early, middle, and late stages of adolescence.

Early adolescence occurs between the ages of 10 to 14.

Fast physical growth: During this stage, children experience rapid growth in their bodies.

The brain begins intense shaping: The brain cells can almost double in over a year at this stage. The brain also begins the synaptic pruning process.

Black-and-white thinking: Children experience “right/great” or “wrong/bad” thinking as they have not yet fully developed abstract thought.

Sense of identity: At this stage, young people center their thinking on themselves, their place in the world, and what others expect from them as they learn to figure out their sense of identity.

Strongly identifies with peers: During early adolescence, people firmly identify with a peer group, attempting to recreate a familiar environment.

Higher need for privacy: Individuals in early adolescence usually look for privacy and want to spend more time alone.

Middle adolescence is a period of great conflict, as young persons struggle to accomplish adolescent tasks but are now becoming aware of their limitations.

Physical changes continue: The body continues to grow and adapt to adulthood. At this stage, girls usually experience regular menstruation.

The brain continues to change: The frontal brain lobes take longer to mature. Development is not complete until a person is well into their 20s! The frontal lobes play a significant role in coordinating complex decision-making, impulse control, and considering multiple options and consequences. Middle adolescents manage better abstract thinking but still need a lot of practice.

Interest in romantic and sexual relationships: Teenagers begin to question their romantic preferences as well as explore their bodies through masturbation. Teens begin to develop feelings of attraction and love towards peers.

Child-parent conflict: Adolescents may spend less time with family and more time with friends and test limits from parents more.

A more significant concern for others & empathy: Teenagers achieve more complex thinking and can put themselves in someone else’s shoes, thus creating feelings of empathy.

Late adolescence occurs between the ages of 18 to 24. At this point, brain development has progressed, and the need to ground oneself in the concrete begins to fade.

Firmer sense of identity: The focus is on determining one’s new identity within the family, the community, and society.

Developed bodies: Puberty has ended, and bodies are fully developed and mature enough for reproduction.

Invincible complex: “It won’t happen to me” is a frequent adolescent way of thinking. In adolescence, engaging in mild-to-moderate risk behaviors like drinking alcohol communicates a fun, cool, and mature image to peers, reinforcing popularity.

Brain changes: Practicing reasoning stimulates the adolescent prefrontal cortex. Frequent “learning moments” to conceptualize complex situations and exercise imagining possibilities can be highly positive.

After this overview of the adolescents' development process, the other videos will cover the mechanisms of action of alcohol, nicotine, and other drugs on the brain.

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Adolescents' development and drug effects

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