Recent research exposes how social media influencers are promoting vaping to adolescents, raising serious concerns about public health and safety. This study highlights the urgent need for preventive measures and stringent regulations. Legalising or normalising vaping without addressing these promotional tactics is incredibly reckless.

Manipulative Marketing Tactics: The study reveals that influencers employ manipulative marketing tactics to attract adolescent followers to vaping. These tactics glamorise vaping, making it appear trendy and harmless. Legalising vaping without tackling these deceptive promotions is irresponsibly shortsighted. Robust preventive measures are essential to counteract such manipulative influences and safeguard young minds.

Health Risks and Addiction: Vaping poses significant health risks, including nicotine addiction, respiratory issues, and potential long-term consequences that are still being studied. The study underscores the severe implications of adolescent vaping, emphasising that legalisation without comprehensive preventive strategies is negligent. Educating the public about these health risks is crucial to preventing a new wave of nicotine addiction among youth.

Effective Preventive Strategies: Implementing effective preventive strategies is critical in combating the influence of social media on adolescent vaping habits. This includes stricter regulations on advertising, enhanced public awareness campaigns, and promoting healthier alternatives. Legalisation without these preventive frameworks is a perilous path. Prioritising prevention and responsible regulation is vital to protect the health and well-being of adolescents.

(For detailed analysis and further reading, please visit WRD News)

Risk of Adverse Neonatal Outcomes After Combined Prenatal Cannabis and Nicotine Exposure

Key Points

Question:  Is in utero exposure to cannabis and nicotine in combination associated with greater adverse outcomes than exposure to either substance alone during pregnancy?

Findings: In this population-based cohort study of more than 3.1 million pregnant individuals, combined use of cannabis and nicotine products in pregnancy was associated with an increased risk of maternal and neonatal morbidity compared with use of either substance alone, including infant and neonatal death, infants small for gestational age, and preterm delivery.

Meaning: These findings suggest that more effective public health measures and counseling prior to conception and during pregnancy are warranted to mitigate the potential for adverse offspring outcomes from combined prenatal cannabis and nicotine use.

Abstract

Importance: The prevalence of cannabis use in pregnancy is rising and is associated with adverse perinatal outcomes. In parallel, combined prenatal use of cannabis and nicotine is also increasing, but little is known about the combined impact of both substances on pregnancy and offspring outcomes compared with each substance alone.

Objective: To assess the perinatal outcomes associated with combined cannabis and nicotine exposure compared with each substance alone during pregnancy.

Main Outcome and Measures: The main outcomes were infant and neonatal death, infants small for gestational age, and preterm delivery. Results were analyzed by multivariable Poisson regression models.

Conclusions and Relevance: These findings suggest that co-occurring maternal use of cannabis and nicotine products in pregnancy is associated with an increased risk of infant and neonatal death and maternal and neonatal morbidity compared with use of either substance alone. Given the increasing prevalence of combined cannabis and nicotine use in pregnancy, these findings can help guide health care practitioners with preconception and prenatal counseling, especially regarding the benefits of cessation. 

(Source: Substance Use and Addiction Medicine | JAMA Network Open | JAMA Network )

Published in Neurology Journal Scan / Research · June 29, 2024 Epilepsia

TAKE-HOME MESSAGE

• Cannabidiol-enriched oil (CBDO) can reduce the risk of seizures in some patients with drug-resistant epilepsy but may worsen seizure control in others. In this study involving 19 patients treated with ≈260-mg CBDO and ≈12-mg THC daily, pre- and post-treatment evaluations for seizures, gait, cognition, mood, sleep, and electrophysiological changes were performed. Overall, 43.75% of the patients responded to CBDO, with an average reduction of 82.4% in seizure frequency, and 56.25% noted an average seizure frequency increase of 30.1%. Response to CBDO was associated with no clear baseline clinical or electrophysiological characteristics. Responders showed improved dual-task walking and MoCA scores.
• Multiple forms of cannabidiol are available, and questions about their use are common in epilepsy practice. This small trial provides some insights into CBDO use, suggesting that it could improve seizures but also has the potential of worsening the seizure control. Based on these initial data and lack of other evidence regarding CBDO use in patients with epilepsy, probably avoiding CBDO use may be the best approach till more controlled trials are available.

Commentary: Of course, this above recorded experimenting with this revisiting of non-trialled self-medicating ‘Charlotte’s Web’ tinctures in a non-pharmaceutical configuration is not necessary as GW Pharma (now JAZZ Pharmaceutical) conducted the thorough and exhaustive clinical trials, manufactured and had registered their product for a genre of non-cannabis drug resistance epilepsy labelled Epidiolex ® In this context, these new ‘trials’ are not only redundant, but a little concerning if best-practice pharmaceutical health is still valued.

(For complete research - Source:  Practice Update)

Age-dependent association of cannabis use with risk of psychotic disorder

Abstract

Background: Epidemiologic research suggests that youth cannabis use is associated with psychotic disorders. However, current evidence is based heavily on 20th-century data when cannabis was substantially less potent than today.

Discussion: We found that cannabis use, compared to no cannabis use, was associated with over 11 times (95%CI4.6–27.3) greater risk of psychotic disorder at any point during adolescence (ages12–19 years)…

We observed a stronger measure of association during adolescence than the vast majority of previous studies. Meta-analyses of longitudinal studies suggest that cannabis use roughly doubles the risk of developing a psychotic disorder compared to non-users…

However, meta-analyses suggest that cannabis use is more strongly associated with psychotic disorders than with psychotic experiences (Marconi etal., 2016;Mooreetal., 2007).Our data also suggests that cannabis use is more strongly associated with more severe psychotic outcomes as the strength of association during adolescence increased markedly when we restricted the outcome to hospitalizations and ED visits (the most severe types of health service use).We highlight that of all the incident psychotic disorder hospitalizations/ED visits during adolescence, roughly 5 in 6 had reported lifetime cannabis use at baseline…

Conclusions: This study provides new evidence of a strong but age-dependent association between cannabis use and risk of psychotic disorder, consistent with the neurodevelopmental theory that adolescence is a vulnerable time to use cannabis. The strength of association dur ing adolescence was notably greater than in previous studies, possibly reflecting the recent rise in cannabis potency.

(Source: Psychological Medicine – Cambridge.org )

Also see

• Cannabis & Psychosis - Irrefutable
• ALL Young Cannabis Users At Risk!

Prenatal exposure to alcohol and its impact on reward processing and substance use in adulthood …this is the first study demonstrating that even moderate levels of alcohol drinking during pregnancy have long-lasting effects on brain function and risk of cannabis use in the offspring. Therefore, our study has critical implications for public health messaging on possible harms related to drinking during pregnancy.

Abstract: Heavy maternal alcohol drinking during pregnancy has been associated with altered neurodevelopment in the child but the effects of low-dose alcohol drinking are less clear and any potential safe level of alcohol use during pregnancy is not known. We evaluated the effects of prenatal alcohol on reward-related behavior and substance use in young adulthood and the potential sex differences therein…Maternal alcohol drinking was assessed during mid-pregnancy and pre-conception. Brain response to reward anticipation and reward feedback was measured using the Monetary Incentive Delay task and substance use in young adulthood was assessed using a self-report questionnaire. We showed that even a moderate exposure to alcohol in mid-pregnancy but not pre-conception was associated with robust effects on brain response to reward feedback (six frontal, one parietal, one temporal, and one occipital cluster) and with greater cannabis use in both men and women 30 years later. Moreover, mid-pregnancy but not pre-conception exposure to alcohol was associated with greater cannabis use in young adulthood and these effects were independent of maternal education and maternal depression during pregnancy. Further, the extent of cannabis use in the late 20 s was predicted by the brain response to reward feedback in three out of the nine prenatal alcohol-related clusters and these effects were independent of current alcohol use. Sex differences in the brain response to reward outcome emerged only during the no loss vs. loss contrast. Young adult men exposed to alcohol prenatally had significantly larger brain response to no loss vs. loss in the putamen and occipital region than women exposed to prenatal alcohol. Therefore, we conclude that even moderate exposure to alcohol prenatally has long-lasting effects on brain function during reward processing and risk of cannabis use in young adulthood.

Conclusions: Overall, our findings, based on 30 years’ worth of data on a prenatal birth cohort, suggest that even relatively moderate exposure to alcohol during pregnancy, a critical sensitive period for brain development, might alter neural reward processing in the offspring and contribute to the intergenerational transmission of risk for substance use disorders. This is the first prospective longitudinal study testing the impact of prenatal and pre-conception exposure to alcohol on brain response to reward processing and substance use in young adulthood. While a number of studies reported altered neurodevelopment and behavior in FASD, this is the first study demonstrating that even moderate levels of alcohol drinking during pregnancy have long-lasting effects on brain function and risk of cannabis use in the offspring. Therefore, our study has critical implications for public health messaging on possible harms related to drinking during pregnancy. (Sources: Translational Psychiatry (nature.com)