Observational studyAddiction (Abingdon, England)2021
A co-twin-control analysis of adolescent and young adult drinking effects on learning and memory.
Observational study in Addiction (Abingdon, England), 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 6 papers.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
6 citing papers in PubMed, 9 citations in OpenAlex.
- A prospective co-twin control analysis of internalizing and externalizing pathways for alcohol, nicotine, and cannabis use problems from adolescence through adulthood.Psychological medicine · 2026Article
- The Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development Study and How We Think About Addiction.JAMA network open · 2024Article
- Testing the consequences of alcohol, cannabis, and nicotine use on hippocampal volume: a quasi-experimental cotwin control analysis of young adult twins.Psychological medicine · 2023Article
- Longitudinal stability and change in time-frequency measures from an oddball task during adolescence and early adulthood.Psychophysiology · 2023Article
- Initiation of Moderately Frequent Cannabis use in Adolescence and Young Adulthood is Associated with Declines in Verbal Learning and Memory: A Longitudinal Comparison of Pre- versus Post-Initiation Cognitive Performance.Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society : JINS · 2021Article
- The Effects of Alcohol and Cannabis Use on the Cortical Thickness of Cognitive Control and Salience Brain Networks in Emerging Adulthood: A Co-twin Control Study.Biological psychiatry · 2021Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
5 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
BACKGROUND AND
aimsExisting evidence for a link between alcohol use and memory impairments in adolescents and young adults is largely correlational. We aimed to determine whether associations between drinking and episodic memory were consistent with a causal effect of drinking or accounted for by familial factors confounding such associations. Because cannabis use is associated with a similar pattern of performance on episodic memory measures, we assessed whether any associations might be attributable to concurrent cannabis use. DESIGN, SETTING AND
participantsObservational study of individuals aged approximately 20-29 years, comprising two independent population-based cohorts of twins. A co-twin-control design permitted an estimate of alcohol exposure effects free of shared genetic and environmental confounding influences. Significant associations were followed-up with twin-difference analyses. Propensity scores derived from measures collected at age 11 were used to adjust for unshared confounders. Participants in both cohorts were assessed from the age of 11 (n = 1251) under the auspices of the Minnesota Center for Twin and Family Research. MEASUREMENTS: Regression analyses with cumulative alcohol use as the predictor of interest. Multiple measures of attention, learning and memory from a widely used episodic memory task constituted dependent variables.
findingsDrinking was associated with poorer attention (P ≤ 0.003) and learning (P ≤ 0.008). Results were similar across the two cohorts. The within-pair effect in twin-difference analyses was significant only for measures of learning (P-values ≤ 0.004). Results were not due to measured unshared confounders or cannabis use. Drinking in adolescence (to age 20) and early adulthood (between 20 and 29) exerted independent effects on learning.
conclusionsThere appears to be a robust and specific association between drinking and learning that can be reproduced across cohorts, is not easily accounted for by confounding factors or concurrent cannabis use and is consistent with a causal influence of drinking.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.