Projects per year
Abstract
INTRODUCTION: Substance use is associated with common mental health disorders, but the causal effect of specific substances is uncertain. We investigate whether adolescent cannabis and cigarette use is associated with incident depression and anxiety, while attempting to account for confounding and reverse causation.
METHODS: We used data from ALSPAC, a UK birth cohort study, to investigate associations between cannabis or cigarettes (measured at age 16) and depression or anxiety (measured at age 18), before and after adjustment for pre-birth, childhood and adolescent confounders. Our imputed sample size was 4561 participants.
RESULTS: Both cannabis (unadjusted OR 1.50, 95% CI 1.26, 1.80) and cigarette use (OR 1.37, 95% CI 1.16, 1.61) increased the odds of developing depression. Adjustment for pre-birth and childhood confounders partly attenuated these relationships though strong evidence of association persisted for cannabis use. There was weak evidence of association for cannabis (fully adjusted OR 1.30, 95% CI 0.98, 1.72) and insufficient evidence for association for cigarette use (fully adjusted OR = 0.97, 95% CI 0.75, 1.24) after mutually adjusting for each other, or for alcohol or other substance use. Neither cannabis nor cigarette use were associated with anxiety after adjustment for pre-birth and childhood confounders.
CONCLUSIONS: Whilst evidence of association between cannabis use and depression persisted after adjusting for pre-term and childhood confounders, our results highlight the difficulties in trying to estimate and interpret independent effects of cannabis and tobacco on psychopathology. Complementary methods are required to robustly examine effects of cannabis and tobacco on psychopathology.
Original language | English |
---|---|
Article number | e0122896 |
Number of pages | 13 |
Journal | PLoS ONE |
Volume | 10 |
Issue number | 4 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 13 Apr 2015 |
Structured keywords
- Brain and Behaviour
- Tobacco and Alcohol
Fingerprint
Dive into the research topics of 'Associations of Cannabis and Cigarette Use with Depression and Anxiety at Age 18: Findings from the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.Projects
- 4 Finished
-
-
ALSPAC - CAUSAL PATHWAYS TO SUBSTANCE USE AND DEPENDENCE IN YOUNG PEOPLE
1/05/09 → 1/04/13
Project: Research
-
Profiles
-
Professor John A A Macleod
- Bristol Medical School (PHS) - Professor in Clinical Epidemiology and Primary Care & Joint Head of CAPC
- Bristol Population Health Science Institute
- Health Protection Research Unit (HPRU)
- Infection and Immunity
- Centre for Academic Primary Care
Person: Academic , Member