Gaya J. Dowling, Ph.D. Director, ABCD Project Division of Extramural Research, NIDA
Disclosures I have no conflicts to disclose.
Why ABCD? Adolescence is a time of extraordinary physical, emotional, and intellectual growth Yet, there is much we don t know about how childhood experiences affect brain, social, emotional, and academic development.
Why now? Technological advances Changing Drug Laws and Markets
Research Objectives Characterize individual developmental trajectories (e.g., brain, cognitive, emotional, academic), and the factors that can affect them. Develop national standards of normal brain development in youth. Disentangle the role of genetic vs. environmental factors on development, including comparisons of twin participants (800 pairs) who will be recruited into the study. Examine the effects of physical activity, sleep, screen time, as well as sports and other injuries on brain development and other outcomes. Study the onset and progression of mental disorders, factors that influence their course or severity, and the relationship between mental disorders and substance use. Understand how exposure to different substances like alcohol, marijuana, nicotine, caffeine, and others, individually or in combination, affect various developmental outcomes and vice versa.
ABCD Baseline Protocol
Recruitment Targets 11,500 9-10 year old children will be recruited over a 24 month period 9,900 children to be recruited using a school based strategy 1,600 children (or 800 twin pairs) to be recruited from twin registries at four sites (Colorado, Minnesota, Missouri, Virginia). Twin pairs will be MZ and DZ (same-sex)
ABCD Demographic Targets: Singles ABCD recruitment sites: 2,000,000 (24% of US Total). Catchment Area Site recruitment targets will be adjusted to increase rural, low SES, and Black participation and decrease Asian participation
Inclusion/Exclusion Criteria Philosophy To be as inclusive as possible given the epidemiological nature of the study and its desire to capture as representative a sample as possible. Principles for exclusion: Focal brain abnormalities (e.g., tumors, TBI) Conditions that would affect the participant s ability to complete the assessments MRI contra-indications Existing alcohol or substance use disorders Intention to move away from an ABCD site Extreme prematurity and low birth weight High Risk Include 50 percent children at high risk for substance use Externalizing Domain disobedient, lies/cheats, destroys property, steals, family smoking Internalizing Domain fearful/anxious, unhappy, physical problems w/o medical cause, slow at making friends, stressed
Assessment Protocol
Some cannabis-specific questions that ABCD could answer How do individual differences in neurodevelopmental trajectories or particular vulnerabilities (e.g., genetics, injury, environmental factors) put children at risk for cannabis use? What impacts do different patterns of cannabis use (e.g., moderate versus heavy; different routes of administration) have on brain development, academic achievement, social functioning, mental health, and other aspects of life? How does use of different types of substances interact? Can the effects of individual drugs be disentangled in individuals who use more than one? Do these impacts reverse when use is stopped?
ABCD Open Science Model A Unique Resource for the Entire Scientific Community Sharing ABCD data will allow scientists worldwide to pool resources and conduct additional analyses to enrich the value of this study. The ABCD Study will release: Raw, cleaned, anonymized imaging data soon after data collection begins. Curated, anonymized data annually beginning 1 year after data collection begins. Computational workflows used to produce the data. Data will be available through the NIMH Data Archive (NDA) https://data-archive.nimh.nih.gov/#abcd-anchor (first release expected Fall 2017)