Gender Differences in Responses to Caffeine in Children and Adolescents

描述（由申请人提供）：咖啡因是世界上使用最广泛的精神活性物质，其在儿童中的使用正在增加。虽然被认为是安全的，但大多数关于咖啡因影响的经验数据都是在成年人中收集的。我们以前的研究，由NIDA的KO1支持，已经证明咖啡因对青少年的生理，情绪和能量摄入具有剂量依赖性影响，并且男孩似乎比女孩对咖啡因的影响更敏感。以下建议描述了一系列旨在调查这些性别差异的机制的实验室研究，包括青春期发育，类固醇激素浓度，月经周期阶段和腺苷受体基因型。这些研究很重要，因为它们将提供有关咖啡因对儿童和青少年影响的急需信息，并确定影响对咖啡因和其他滥用药物反应的性别差异的机制。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Caffeine is the most widely used psychoactive substance in the world and its use is increasing among children. Although considered safe, the majority of empirical data on the effects of caffeine have been collected in adults. Our previous studies, supported by a KO1 from NIDA, have demonstrated that caffeine has dose-dependent effects on physiological, mood, and energy intake in adolescents and that boys appear to be more sensitive to the effects of caffeine than girls. The following proposal describes a series of laboratory studies aimed at investigating the mechanisms underlying these gender differences, including pubertal development, steroid hormone concentrations, menstrual cycle phase, and adenosine receptor genotypes. These studies are important because they will provide much needed information on the effects of caffeine in children and adolescents as well as identify mechanisms that influence gender differences in response to caffeine and, perhaps, other drugs of abuse.