Funding for Marijuana Studying in Adolescents

Thinking of ways to help adolescents avoid addictions have been something people have been trying to find for ages. Chemical dependency counseling has been steadily increasing job wis, but that is because so little people try to prevent the young adults from indulging in the first place!  

"HIV experts at the University of Florida, along with colleagues at the University of South Florida and the University of California, San Diego, have been awarded $4.7 million by the National Institutes of Health to study how the complex interplay between marijuana use and HIV infection can influence the development of neurological disorders in adolescents.

The five-year study will use a multidisciplinary approach that could lead to the identification of novel blood-based biomarkers for tracking how substance abuse alters immune function and the progression of HIV infection in the central nervous system. It may also provide evidence to support behavioral guidelines for HIV-infected youth. 

"Findings from this study could translate into better diagnosis tools and new therapies, or chemical dependency counseling techniques, to improve long-term outcomes for young adults infected with HIV," said principal investigator Maureen Goodenow, Ph.D., the Stephany W. Holloway university chair in AIDS research and professor of pathology, immunology and laboratory medicine in the UF College of Medicine. 

Despite powerful new therapies that have rendered HIV less deadly, movement and cognitive problems, including dementia, are still common among people who are infected. As a result, many infected adolescents may face a lifetime of impaired thinking and behavior. 

The researchers previously found that 30 percent to 40 percent of HIV-infected youth use marijuana, alcohol, cocaine, methamphetamines or other substances, and almost one-third use marijuana every day. 

To tackle that problem, study participants from 16 to 25 years old will be recruited from 15 sites around the country through the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development Adolescent Trials Network, of which USF is a member. Four different groups of individuals who reflect a wide cross section of age, gender, ethnic heritage and sexual orientation will be studied: youth who are already taking antiretroviral therapy, others who are untreated because they do not meet department of health treatment guidelines, some receiving treatment earlier than recommended, and a control group of individuals not infected with HIV. 

Overall, the study's findings could give insight into how behavioral choices affect HIV disease progression and risk for transmission in young adults, and yield clues about the best stage at which to start treatment with antiretroviral drugs. 

"The question we're trying to answer," Sleasman said, "is 'how do we best advise these young adults about managing their disease?" "

 
-University of Florida Health Science Center 

Article Date: 05 Jan 2011 

Source:http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/212755.php

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