Classifying and visualizing medication use in the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD) Study

Area of Science:

• Neuroscience
• Developmental Psychology
• Pharmacology

Background:

• Adolescent medication use is crucial for understanding health trends.
• Analyzing medication data is challenging due to complex labeling.
• Standardization is needed for consistent research findings.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop a reproducible framework for standardizing medication categorization in the ABCD Study.
• To improve analytic consistency and reliability of medication use data in adolescents.
• To enable better examination of medication effects on adolescent neurocognitive development.

Main Methods:

• Harmonized parent-reported prescription and OTC medication data from the ABCD Study (baseline to Year 6).
• Employed the Anatomical Therapeutic Chemical (ATC) Classification System, AI, and clinical expertise for categorization.
• Utilized a case study on antidepressant use and internalizing symptoms (BPM-Y) to demonstrate the framework's utility.

Main Results:

• Consolidated over 6,300 unique medication entries into 95 clinically meaningful categories.
• Identified cold/flu/allergy and acne treatments as the most common medication types.
• Adolescents using antidepressants showed significant reductions in internalizing symptoms over time.

Conclusions:

• Introduced a standardized, reproducible classification system for adolescent medication use in the ABCD Study.
• The framework, dashboard, and code support research on medication exposure and developmental outcomes.
• Facilitates novel investigations into the relationship between medication and adolescent brain, neurocognition, and behavior.