Biospecimens and the ABCD Study: Rationale, Methods of Collection, Measurement and Early Data

Overview

Journal Dev Cogn Neurosci

Publisher Elsevier

Specialties Neurology
Psychiatry

Date 2018 Apr 3

PMID 29606560

Citations 67

Authors

Kristina A Uban

Megan K Horton

Joanna Jacobus

Charles Heyser

Wesley K Thompson

Susan F Tapert

Pamela A F Madden

Elizabeth R Sowell

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Biospecimen collection in the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD) study - of hair samples, shed deciduous (baby) teeth, and body fluids - will serve dual functions of screening for study eligibility, and providing measures of biological processes thought to predict or correlate with key study outcomes on brain and cognitive development. Biosamples are being collected annually to screen for recency of drug use prior to the neuroimaging or cognitive testing visit, and to store for the following future studies: (1) on the effects of exposure to illicit and recreational drugs (including alcohol and nicotine); (2) of pubertal hormones on brain and cognitive developmental trajectories; (3) on the contribution of genomics and epigenomics to child and adolescent development and behavioral outcomes; and (4) with pre- and post-natal exposure to environmental neurotoxicants and drugs of abuse measured from novel tooth analyses. The present manuscript describes the rationales for inclusion and selection of the specific biospecimens, methodological considerations for each measure, future plans for assessment of biospecimens during follow-up visits, and preliminary ABCD data to illustrate methodological considerations.

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