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
6543278
TITLE
Causes of variation in drinking habits in a large twin sample.
ABSTRACT
A genetic analysis of alcohol consumption in 3810 pairs of adult twins is reported. When no correction was made for age, individual environmental variance, including non-repeatable errors of reporting, accounted for approximately 44% of variation in both sexes. In females, there was no evidence of shared environmental effects and 56% of the variance was genetic in origin. In males, only 36% of the variance was genetic and common environmental effects accounted for the remaining 20% of individual differences. For females, the results for younger (30 years and under) and older (over 30) twins were similar. For males, however, the effect of age was striking. In younger male twins over 60% of the variance was genetic in origin, with the remaining variance due to environmental influences unique to the individual. In older twins genetic differences do not appear to be important, with approximately 50% of the total variance due to individual environmental differences and the remaining 50% due to the effect of the common family environment. Our results suggest that both age and sex need to be considered when analysing the causes of variation in alcohol consumption.
DATE PUBLISHED
1984
HISTORY
PUBSTATUS PUBSTATUSDATE
pubmed 1984/01/01
medline 1984/01/01 00:01
entrez 1984/01/01 00:00
AUTHORS
NAME COLLECTIVENAME LASTNAME FORENAME INITIALS AFFILIATION AFFILIATIONINFO
Jardine R Jardine R R
Martin NG Martin N G NG
INVESTIGATORS
JOURNAL
VOLUME: 33
ISSUE: 3
TITLE: Acta geneticae medicae et gemellologiae
ISOABBREVIATION: Acta Genet Med Gemellol (Roma)
YEAR: 1984
MONTH:
DAY:
MEDLINEDATE:
SEASON:
CITEDMEDIUM: Print
ISSN: 0001-5660
ISSNTYPE: Print
MEDLINE JOURNAL
MEDLINETA: Acta Genet Med Gemellol (Roma)
COUNTRY: Italy
ISSNLINKING: 0001-5660
NLMUNIQUEID: 0370314
PUBLICATION TYPE
PUBLICATIONTYPE TEXT
Comparative Study
Journal Article
Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
COMMENTS AND CORRECTIONS
GRANTS
GENERAL NOTE
KEYWORDS
MESH HEADINGS
DESCRIPTORNAME QUALIFIERNAME
Adolescent
Adult
Age Factors
Aged
Alcohol Drinking
Australia
Environment
Female
Humans
Male
Middle Aged
Models, Genetic
Personality
Pregnancy
Sex Factors
Statistics as Topic
Twins psychology
SUPPLEMENTARY MESH
GENE SYMBOLS
CHEMICALS
OTHER ID's