Developmental Pathophysiology of Adverse Patterns of Substance Use in Adolescents with Anxiety

NIH RePORTER · DA · R01 · $644,398 · view on reporter.nih.gov ↗

Abstract

The proposed 5-year R01 study will examine maturational pathways of biomarkers (neural connectivity and stress physiology) to adverse patterns of substance use (APSU) in adolescents with anxiety symptoms to improve precision-based, targeted intervention. Anxiety remains one of the most commonly diagnosed clinical symptom domains in adolescence and is a potent precursor to and exacerbator of substance use disorder, although there is substantial heterogeneity in outcomes. As such, detection of anxiety symptoms alone provides limited information about the predictability, pathophysiology, progression, and preventability of anxiety-linked APSU. Key to understanding how anxiety symptoms increase risk for APSU may be found in a disruption of neural pathways that subserve executive cognitive modulation of threat information processing and response. We propose that local alterations in threat processing circuitry (e.g., the central extended amygdala) during anticipation or unpredictability of threat, and stress physiological dysregulation (heart rate variability and salivary cortisol) during a social stress task, underpin internalizing symptoms. However, local intra-network alterations likely do not fully explain pathways from internalizing symptoms (anxiety) to externalizing behaviors (APSU). Thus, we further propose that a breakdown in coordination between cognitive control circuity (frontoparietal and cingulo-opercular) and threat processing circuitry will be expressed in both weakened neural connectivity and poorer task performance, which will predict APSU in adolescents with anxiety symptoms at high risk for SUD. Across development, we expect these neuronal and physiological features will become even more pronounced and sex differences will become increasingly prominent. Our objective is to elucidate the role of maturational change across adolescence in neural connectivity between fronto-limbic subsystems and physiological stress responses to an acute stressor in the r

Key facts

NIH application ID
11334318
Project number
5R01DA057312-04
Recipient
UNIV OF NORTH CAROLINA CHAPEL HILL
Principal Investigator
Aysenil Belger; DIANA H FISHBEIN; TY A RIDENOUR
Activity code
R01
Funding institute
DA
Fiscal year
2026
Award amount
$644,398
Award type
5
Project period
2023-07-01T00:00:00 → 2028-04-30T00:00:00