AURORA | Male adolescents who take drugs, get in fights and act out in other ways may be victims of faulty brain chemistry, according to a recently published study by researchers at the University of Colorado School of Medicine.
The study links antisocial and reckless behavior in adolescent boys to brain chemistry. Specifically, the study conducted by researchers at the Anschutz Medical Campus, the University of Colorado at Boulder and the University of Maryland ties poor decisions to malfunctions in the brain.
The study drew on data gathered from 20 boys who had psychiatric diagnosis of conduct disorder or substance use disorder. The test subjects played a computerized risk-taking game that presented choices between cautious and risky behaviors. Researchers compared results with data from a group of 20 adolescent boys who had no serious antisocial or drug issues.
The results showed a marked difference in brain functions between the two groups.
“Brain responses to everyday rewards and punishments gradually guide most youngsters’ decisions to conform with society’s rules. However, when these seriously troubled kids experience rewards and punishments, and make decisions, their brains apparently malfunction,” said Thomas Crowley, a psychiatry professor at the School of Medicine and lead author on the study. “Our findings strongly suggest that brain malfunction underlies their frequent failure to conform to rules, to make wise decisions, and to avoid relapses back to drug use and antisocial acts.”
The study was funded in part by grants from the National Institute on Drug Abuse and the Kane Family Foundation of Colorado Springs. The findings were published in the online journal Public Library of Science One.
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