Denise De Micheli, André Luiz Monezi Andrade, Eroy Aparecida da Silva, and Maria Lucia Oliveira de Souza Formigoni (Eds.): Drug Abuse in Adolescence: Neurobiological, Cognitive and Psychological Issues

Drug Abuse in Adolescence is an edited compilation of chapters focused on the topic of drug use and its effects on the development of adolescents. Some of the authors follow a strict biological approach while others adopt a more flexible one, but most seem to develop several common themes. The first is that adverse neurobiological outcomes can be attributed to the neurotoxic effects that alcohol and drugs exert on the brain’s morphology, functionality, and structural connectivity. In other words, the toxic effect of drugs in the adolescent body can have significant detrimental effects to the brain by altering its processes, which can cause irreparable damage to the brain’s regional connectivity. Another common theme is that exposure to alcohol or drugs at a younger age will have a more deleterious effect than starting the consumption at a later one. This has to do with how far along the brain is in developing.. Lastly, there seems to be awareness that the effects of drug use can be seen throughout the lifespan. Significant damage to the brain at early stages of life can be irreparable, and may follow the adolescent into their adulthood. Whether studying how drug use disturbs biological processes or examining how adolescents interact with their environments, either as drug abstinent or drug-users, it can be easily seen that drug abuse can have severe effects on the teenage years and after. …