This post was coauthored by Gabriella Oettinger and Juan Dominguez, Ph.D.

As we begin the new school year, the importance of understanding the challenges and risks that students face becomes particularly pressing. Amid these challenges, illegal substance use remains a serious issue, especially given its impact on the developing teenage brain.

This summer, my laboratory at the University of Texas at Austin welcomed a bright high school student as a volunteer. Members of my lab are interested in how hormones act in the brain to influence response to drugs of abuse. This student was engaged in primarily archival research on this topic.

During her time with us, I assigned her a recently published review article on the potential effects of various drugs on the developing teenage brain [1]. Given her aptitude and enthusiasm, I expected her to find the article accessible. However, while she understood and processed most of the material, she struggled with some of the more complex aspects of the paper. It then dawned on me that even highly capable teenagers might find it challenging to capture such crucial information about drugs and the teenage brain.

The teenage years are a time of significant brain development, and understanding how drug abuse might impact this process is important for young people, not just brain scientists. This recognition led to the collaborative project presented below, where we coauthored this entry, hoping to make some of the science behind drug effects on the teenage brain more accessible from the standpoint of a teenage student. In this piece, we discuss key points from the review article and explore how different substances can affect the brain during this critical stage of development. It is our hope that this entry will reach the most relevant audience for this topic: teenagers.

In 2022, over 70 million teenagers reported using some form of illegal drug. By 2023, more than 30 percent of high school seniors admitted to using drugs in the past year. The immediate dangers of substance use are well-known, but for teenagers, the risks extend beyond the immediate. The teenage brain is in a crucial........

© Psychology Today