How Does Adolescent Neurodevelopment Impact Substance Use? The Substance use Neuroplasticity And Peer (SNAP) Model: a Novel Neurodevelopmental Model of Adolescent Substance Use.

Substance use among adolescents age 13-18 remains a significant societal concern, yet contemporary neuroscience models of addiction have been grounded in the chronic, cyclic stage model developed for adult presentations of substance use disorder (SUD). Relative to adults, adolescents exhibit distinct patterns of substance use, and many structural and functional findings garnered from studies of addiction in the adult brain have not been reliably observed or replicated in adolescent samples. Thus, contemporary models of adult addiction do not readily translate to adolescents, resulting in downstream developmental incongruities in how substance use is conceptualized, measured, and treated in this age group. Here, we present a review of the current state of human and preclinical models of neurobiological risk factors and mechanisms specific to substance use in adolescents. Grounded in this literature, we present the Substance use Neuroplasticity And Peer (SNAP) model, a novel neurodevelopmental model of adolescent substance use that captures the differentiated nature of substance use initiation and escalation in this high-need, yet undertreated population.