NIH Behavioral and Social Sciences Seminar Series
Dick, Danielle M.
National Institutes of Health (U.S.). Office of Behavioral and Social Sciences Research.
Alcohol dependence is a complex behavioral disorder, known to be influenced by both genetic and environmental factors, with trajectories of risk behavior that manifest long before the eventual development of problems.
This talk will present findings across a variety of complementary research areas, including twin studies, gene identification projects, and longitudinal, community-based samples, all of which have the goal of contributing to our understanding of how genetic and environmental influences impact the development of alcohol use disorders. Twin studies allow us to characterize the nature of (latent) genetic and environmental influences on behavior.
Data from the Finnish twin studies, population-based epidemiological samples with assessments spanning ages 12 to 26, will be presented that demonstrate the changing influence of genetic effects on alcohol use and related phenotypes as a function of the environment, and across adolescence into young adulthood.
A second line of investigation focuses on identifying specific genes involved in alcohol use and related phenotypes.
Data will be presented from two of the largest on-going gene identification projects for alcohol dependence: the Collaborative Study of the Genetics of Alcoholism, and the Irish Affected Sib-Pair Study of Alcohol Dependence.
Thirdly, in order to understand how genetic influences result in the eventual alteration of risk for psychiatric and substance use outcomes, it will be necessary to characterize the risk associated with identified genes using community-based samples of individuals studied longitudinally. To this end, data will be presented from the Child Development Project, a community-based study of ~500 children followed annually from age 5-25; the Mobile Youth Study, an on-going community-based sample of children ages 10-18 from high-risk, impoverished neighborhoods in Mobile, Alabama; and the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children, an epidemiological cohort of ~10,000 children enrolled when their mothers were pregnant and assessed yearly -- prenatally through young adulthood.
Highlights from these projects will be presented to illustrate how, through interdisciplinary research, we are gaining a greater understanding of how genetic and environmental influences contribute to the risk for alcohol related problems, and how that risk manifests across development.
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