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Structural connectivity in adolescent synthetic cannabinoid users with and without ADHD

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Abstract

Synthetic cannabinoids (SC) have become increasingly popular in the last few years, especially among adolescents. Given ADHD is overrepresented in patients with substance use across adolescents compared to the general population, the current study aims were two-fold: i) examine structural brain network topology in SC users compared to healthy controls and, ii) examine the influence of ADHD on network topology in SC users. Diffusion-weighted magnetic resonance imaging scans were acquired from 27 SC users (14 without ADHD and 13 with ADHD combined type) and 13 controls. Structural networks were examined using network-based statistic and connectomic analysis. We found that SC users without ADHD had significantly weaker connectivity compared to controls in bilateral hemispheres, most notably in edges connecting the left parietal and occipital regions. In contrast, SC users with ADHD showed stronger structural connectivity compared to controls. In addition, adolescent SC users with ADHD, but not without ADHD, displayed reduced network organization, indicated by lower clustering coefficient and modularity, suggesting that poor structural network segregation and preserved structural network integration. These results suggest that comorbidity of ADHD and substance dependence may show different structural connectivity alterations than substance use alone. Therefore, future connectivity studies in the substance use population should account for the presence of ADHD in their samples, which may be associated with disparate connectivity profiles.

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Funding

This research was funded by Ege University Science and Technology Application and Research Center (grant number 2015 EGEBAM 001) which had no role in the design of the study, collection and analysis of data and decision to publish.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Child Psychiatry, Cizre State Hospital, Sirnak, Turkey

    Zehra Çakmak Çelik

  2. Department of Psychiatry, Cigli Regional Training Hospital, Izmir, Turkey

    Çiğdem Çolak

  3. Department of Psychiatry, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA

    Maria A. Di Biase

  4. Melbourne Neuropsychiatry Centre, Department of Psychiatry, The University of Melbourne and Melbourne Health, Carlton South, VIC, Australia

    Andrew Zalesky

  5. Department of Biomedical Engineering, The University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Australia

    Andrew Zalesky

  6. Department of Psychiatry, Katip Celebi University, Ataturk Training and Research Hospital, Izmir, Turkey

    Nabi Zorlu

  7. Department of Psychiatry, Dokuz Eylül University Medical School, Izmir, Turkey

    Emre Bora

  8. Department of Radiodiagnostics, Ege University School of Medicine, Izmir, Turkey

    Ömer Kitiş

  9. Department of Child Psychiatry, Ege University School of Medicine, Izmir, Turkey

    Zeki Yüncü

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  1. Zehra Çakmak Çelik
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  2. Çiğdem Çolak
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Çelik, Z.Ç., Çolak, Ç., Di Biase, M.A. et al. Structural connectivity in adolescent synthetic cannabinoid users with and without ADHD. Brain Imaging and Behavior 14, 505–514 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11682-018-0023-x

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