Early Puberty May Mean Anxiety, Abnormal Eating Behaviors Later May 28, 2009
Going through puberty at a young age might foretell problems to come, report researchers who found early puberty is associated with abnormal eating behaviors and anxiety in young adults. Results of the study were reported at the 6th International Congress of Neuroendocrinology (ICN 2006).
Researchers who study puberty say it is more than just an awkward phase when boys and girls are primed for their sexual reproductive years as men and women. Puberty also is a delicate and dynamic time in the development of the brain, when important neural pathways essential for behavioral and cognitive functions are formed. Indeed, brains of children going through puberty are especially vulnerable to the effects of marijuana, suggest results of animal research also reported at ICN 2006, which took place June 19 – 22 at the David L. Lawrence Convention Center in downtown Pittsburgh.
Summaries of the studies’ findings and other research looking at what triggers puberty follow:
Early puberty associated with eating and anxiety problems as young adults
A study involving 1,500 college students suggests that those who experience early puberty are more likely to engage in abnormal eating behaviors and have feelings of anxiety in young adulthood. Interestingly, the researchers found the association not limited to girls. In fact, the study conducted by Julia Zehr, Ph.D., a post-doctoral fellow at Michigan State University, and colleagues, found that both female and male students who reported they’d entered puberty earlier than their friends and peers scored significantly higher for measures related to binge eating, dieting and concerns about food intake, weight or body shape, as well as anxiety.
The findings are consistent with the idea that such behaviors result from long-lasting changes in brain circuitry that occur during early puberty, when a still-developing brain must adapt to the presence of surging hormones. Eating and anxiety disorders often begin during adolescence and are associated with early puberty, so some have held the view that the psychosocial pressures of standing out from one’s peers make young kids more vulnerable. Another possibility is that the hormones themselves are to blame. Dr. Zehr points out that if either theory were true, adolescents would eventually grow out of such behaviors, because, eventually, the awkwardness of early puberty goes away and the hormones settle to adult levels. Based on the study’s finding that early puberty is associated with increased symptoms in both young men and women, Dr. Zehr believes the influences of puberty are more biological than solely psychosocial.
Marijuana may be more mind-altering than you think: Early exposure can hinder brain development, increase susceptibility to other addictions
Marijuana may indeed be the storied “gateway drug” to other more serious drug addictions, according to researchers from Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York and the Karolinska Institute in Sweden. Adolescence is a delicate and dynamic time in the development of the brain when important neural pathways essential for behavioral and cognitive functions are formed. It also is a time when teenagers and even pre-teens are likely to first experiment with marijuana.
Researchers have debated whether or not marijuana use during adolescence can affect brain development or cause the user to be more vulnerable to neuropsychiatric disorders and drug abuse later in life. Yasmin Hurd, Ph.D., professor of pharmacology and biochemistry and psychiatry at Mount Sinai, and colleagues, sought to determine exactly what, if any, impact tetrahydrocannabinal (THC), the psychoactive component of marijuana, has on the developing brain and later behaviors. According to their studies, rats exposed to THC during the early developmental stages, had, as adults, higher self-administered heroin intake under mild stressful conditions than rats not exposed to THC during developmental stages. Those exposed showed neural impairments in brain areas linked to reward, stress and anxiety. These impairments can cause dysregulation of the enkephalin system – the brain’s natural morphine system – and are implicated in addiction and affective disorders. Dr. Hurd suggests that while these findings are preliminary, they provide evidence that marijuana can have negative and long-lasting effects on the brain. Na