Genetic Epidemiology, Translational Neurogenomics, Psychiatric Genetics and Statistical Genetics Laboratories investigate the pattern of disease in families, particularly identical and non-identical twins, to assess the relative importance of genes and environment in a variety of important health problems.
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PMID
16734942
TITLE
Maternal alcohol use disorder and offspring ADHD: disentangling genetic and environmental effects using a children-of-twins design.
ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND NlmCategory: BACKGROUND
Children of alcoholics are significantly more likely to experience high-risk environmental exposures, including prenatal substance exposure, and are more likely to exhibit externalizing problems [e.g. attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD)]. While there is evidence that genetic influences and prenatal nicotine and/or alcohol exposure play separate roles in determining risk of ADHD, little has been done on determining the joint roles that genetic risk associated with maternal alcohol use disorder (AUD) and prenatal risk factors play in determining risk of ADHD.
METHOD NlmCategory: METHODS
Using a children-of-twins design, diagnostic telephone interview data from high-risk families (female monozygotic and dizygotic twins concordant or discordant for AUD as parents) and control families targeted from a large Australian twin cohort were analyzed using logistic regression models.
RESULTS NlmCategory: RESULTS
Offspring of twins with a history of AUD, as well as offspring of non-AUD monozygotic twins whose co-twin had AUD, were significantly more likely to exhibit ADHD than offspring of controls. This pattern is consistent with a genetic explanation for the association between maternal AUD and increased offspring risk of ADHD. Adjustment for prenatal smoking, which remained significantly predictive, did not remove the significant genetic association between maternal AUD and offspring ADHD.
CONCLUSIONS NlmCategory: CONCLUSIONS
While maternal smoking during pregnancy probably contributes to the association between maternal AUD and offspring ADHD risk, the evidence for a significant genetic correlation suggests: (i) pleiotropic genetic effects, with some genes that influence risk of AUD also influencing vulnerability to ADHD; or (ii) ADHD is a direct risk-factor for AUD.
DATE PUBLISHED
2006 Oct
HISTORY
PUBSTATUS PUBSTATUSDATE
aheadofprint 2006/05/31
pubmed 2006/06/01 09:00
medline 2007/01/25 09:00
entrez 2006/06/01 09:00
AUTHORS
NAME COLLECTIVENAME LASTNAME FORENAME INITIALS AFFILIATION AFFILIATIONINFO
Knopik VS Knopik Valerie S VS Center for Alcohol and Addiction Studies, Department of Community Health, Brown University Medical School, Providence, RI 02912, USA. Valerie_Knopik@brown.edu
Heath AC Heath Andrew C AC
Jacob T Jacob Theodore T
Slutske WS Slutske Wendy S WS
Bucholz KK Bucholz Kathleen K KK
Madden PA Madden Pamela A F PA
Waldron M Waldron Mary M
Martin NG Martin Nicholas G NG
INVESTIGATORS
JOURNAL
VOLUME: 36
ISSUE: 10
TITLE: Psychological medicine
ISOABBREVIATION: Psychol Med
YEAR: 2006
MONTH: Oct
DAY:
MEDLINEDATE:
SEASON:
CITEDMEDIUM: Print
ISSN: 0033-2917
ISSNTYPE: Print
MEDLINE JOURNAL
MEDLINETA: Psychol Med
COUNTRY: England
ISSNLINKING: 0033-2917
NLMUNIQUEID: 1254142
PUBLICATION TYPE
PUBLICATIONTYPE TEXT
Journal Article
Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural
Twin Study
COMMENTS AND CORRECTIONS
GRANTS
GRANTID AGENCY COUNTRY
AA07728 NIAAA NIH HHS United States
AA11998 NIAAA NIH HHS United States
DA17671 NIDA NIH HHS United States
GENERAL NOTE
KEYWORDS
MESH HEADINGS
DESCRIPTORNAME QUALIFIERNAME
Adult
Alcoholism epidemiology
Attention Deficit Disorder with Hyperactivity epidemiology
Child epidemiology
Child of Impaired Parents statistics & numerical data
Environment statistics & numerical data
Female statistics & numerical data
Humans statistics & numerical data
Male statistics & numerical data
Maternal Behavior psychology
Mothers statistics & numerical data
Pregnancy statistics & numerical data
Prenatal Exposure Delayed Effects epidemiology
Questionnaires epidemiology
Risk Factors epidemiology
Twins genetics
SUPPLEMENTARY MESH
GENE SYMBOLS
CHEMICALS
OTHER ID's