Volume 102 Issue 3 Page 389 - March 2007RESEARCH REPORT
The monoamine oxidase A (MAO-A) gene, family function and maltreatment as predictors of destructive behaviour during male adolescent alcohol consumption
Kent W. Nilsson1 1Centre for Clinical Research, Uppsala University, Central Hospital Västerås, Västerås, Sweden and Kent Nilsson, Centre for Clinical Research, Central Hospital Västerås (1), S-721 89 Västerås, Sweden. E-mail: kent.nilsson@ltv.se ,
Rickard L. Sjöberg1 1Centre for Clinical Research, Uppsala University, Central Hospital Västerås, Västerås, Sweden and ,
Hanna-Linn Wargelius2 2Department of Neuroscience, Unit of Pharmacology, Uppsala University, Uppsala, Sweden ,
Jerzy Leppert1 1Centre for Clinical Research, Uppsala University, Central Hospital Västerås, Västerås, Sweden and, Leif Lindström1 1 Centre for Clinical Research, Uppsala University, Central Hospital Västerås, Västerås, Sweden and & Lars Oreland2 2 Department of Neuroscience, Unit of Pharmacology, Uppsala University, Uppsala, Sweden
1Centre for Clinical Research, Uppsala University, Central Hospital Västerås, Västerås, Sweden and
2Department of Neuroscience, Unit of Pharmacology, Uppsala University, Uppsala, Sweden
Kent Nilsson, Centre for Clinical Research, Central Hospital Västerås (1), S-721 89 Västerås, Sweden. E-mail:
ABSTRACT
Aim To investigate possible interactions between a polymorphism in the monoamine oxidase A (MAO-A) gene promoter, family relations and maltreatment/sexual abuse on adolescent alcohol-related problem behaviour among male adolescents.
Design, setting and participants A cross-sectional study of a randomized sample of 66 male individuals from a total population of 16- and 19-year adolescents from a Swedish county. Boys, who volunteered to participate answering an alcohol-related problem/behaviour questionnaire, were investigated with regard to interactions between such problems, family function, maltreatment and MAO-A genotype.
Measurements MAO-A genotype, family relations history, history of being maltreated or abused and alcohol-related problem behaviour.
Findings Boys with the short (three-repeat) variant of the MAO-A gene, who had been maltreated/abused or came from families with poor relations, showed significantly higher scores of alcohol-related problems. We also found that maltreatment/abuse independently showed the strongest relation to alcohol-related problems among boys in our model.
Conclusions The results suggest that both maltreatment and MAO-A genotype may be useful for the understanding of male adolescent alcohol-related problem behaviour.
