«Given the solid epidemiologic evidence supporting a link between cannabis exposure during adolescence and schizophrenia, we investigated
whether the use of cannabis during
early adolescence (by 16 years of age) is associated with variations in brain
maturation as a function of genetic risk for schizophrenia,» said senior author Tomas Paus, MD, PhD, the Anne and Max Tanenbaum Professor and Chair in Population Neuroscience at Baycrest, University of Toronto, and the Dr. John and Consuela Phelan Scholar at Child Mind Institute, New York.
Because
early adolescence is not only a period of major physical change for girls, but also a time in which peer relationships become increasingly significant, a key question linking these two aspects of development is
whether signs of pubertal
maturation are related to one's social reputation among peers and, furthermore,
whether such reputational factors might help us understand why
early maturing girls display emotional adjustment problems.