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Evidence of more-severe brain pathology in adolescents who use cannabis versus adult users (Pharmacol Ther 2015; 148C:1) led investigators to study whether a similar age disparity occurred in methamphetamine users. Participants were 111 teenagers (51 users) and 114 adults (54 users). Analyses divided controls by positive or negative family histories of substance use disorders and controlled for smoking, alcohol, and route of methamphetamine administration.
On neuroimaging, both adolescent and adult users showed significant differences from family-history–negative controls. But compared with adult users, adolescent users had greater decreases in cortical thickness in orbitofrontal, precuneus, and inferior parietal regions and, on diffusion te…