Early nicotine initiation and white matter integrity: Associations from late childhood to mid-adolescence.

ABSTRACT: Nicotine use is increasing in prevalence among adolescents and emerging adults in the United States. While young adulthood nicotine use has been linked to alterations in white matter tissue brain structure, little is known about late childhood nicotine initiation and its associations with white matter microstructural development. In this study, nicotine initiators (ages 9-16, n = 556) were compared on white matter regions-of-interest (ROIs) to sociodemographically matched peers (n = 556) using a subsample of the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD) Study (baseline to year-4 follow-up). Fractional anisotropy and mean diffusivity metrics were examined across 11 diffusion tensor imaging ROIs. Linear mixed-effects models examined nicotine initiation while controlling for prenatal nico

SUBMITTER: Sullivan RM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12826074 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature