Animal models of periadolescent substance abuse

Use of addictive substances by human juveniles and adolescents is common, including use to intoxication and progression from one drug to other drugs. Until quite recently, animal studies have not addressed the periadolescent period as a time of special vulnerability to substance abuse. For ethanol (EtOH), the most studied drug in periadolescent animals, it has become clear that effects of alcohol are similar in some ways, but different in others, compared to the effects seen in adult animals. Sparse data suggest that this conclusion may apply to other drugs as well. Recent work in rats indicates that periadolescent substance use may disrupt normal pubertal development, and may induce stronger effects on systems subserving plasticity and cognition than in adults. Animal data also indicate that some drugs may produce altered subsequent sensitivity to the same or a different drug, changes in adult cognitive capabilities, and even CNS damage. It is now clear that there can be no presumption that all studies of abusable substances carried out in adult animals will generalize readily to periadolescents. Some data suggest that continuing developmental changes in receptor expression may underlie age-related changes in drug effects. However, the biological characteristics of periadolescence which predispose toward consumption to intoxication, and the mechanisms underlying drug progression and persisting drug effects, still remain to be well defined.