Abstract
Background and aims: Existing 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 participants: Observational 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. Findings: Drinking 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. Conclusions: There 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.
Original language | English (US) |
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Pages (from-to) | 1689-1699 |
Number of pages | 11 |
Journal | Addiction |
Volume | 116 |
Issue number | 7 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - Jul 2021 |
Bibliographical note
Publisher Copyright:© 2020 Society for the Study of Addiction
Keywords
- Adolescence
- alcohol
- cannabis
- co-twin–control
- short-term memory
- verbal learning