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Cannabis use and psychotic‐like experiences trajectories during early adolescence: the coevolution and potential mediators
Author(s) -
Bourque Josiane,
Afzali Mohammad H.,
O'LearyBarrett Maeve,
Conrod Patricia
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
journal of child psychology and psychiatry
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 3.652
H-Index - 211
eISSN - 1469-7610
pISSN - 0021-9630
DOI - 10.1111/jcpp.12765
Subject(s) - cannabis , psychology , anxiety , depression (economics) , longitudinal study , cognition , clinical psychology , odds ratio , latent growth modeling , psychiatry , developmental psychology , medicine , pathology , economics , macroeconomics
Background The authors sought to model the different trajectories of psychotic‐like experiences ( PLE ) during adolescence and to examine whether the longitudinal relationship between cannabis use and PLE is mediated by changes in cognitive development and/or change in anxiety or depression symptoms. Methods A total of 2,566 youths were assessed every year for 4‐years (from 13‐ to 16‐years of age) on clinical, substance use and cognitive development outcomes. Latent class growth models identified three trajectories of PLE : low decreasing (83.9%), high decreasing (7.9%), and moderate increasing class (8.2%). We conducted logistic regressions to investigate whether baseline levels and growth in cannabis use were associated with PLE trajectory membership. Then, we examined the effects of potential mediators (growth in cognition and anxiety/depression) on the relationship between growth in cannabis use and PLE trajectory. Results A steeper growth in cannabis use from 13‐ to 16‐years was associated with a higher likelihood of being assigned to the moderate increasing trajectory of PLE [odds ratio, 2.59; 95% confidence interval (CI), 1.11–6.03], when controlling for cumulative cigarette use. Growth in depression symptoms, not anxiety or change in cognitive functioning, mediated the relationship between growth in cannabis use and the PLE moderate increasing group (indirect effect: 0.07; 95% CI , 0.03–0.11). Conclusions Depression symptoms partially mediated the longitudinal link between cannabis use and PLE in adolescents, suggesting that there may be a preventative effect to be gained from targeting depression symptoms, in addition to attempting to prevent cannabis use in youth presenting increasing psychotic experiences.