Abstract
The inability to quantify the risk for disorders, such as substance use disorders (SUD), hinders etiology research and development of targeted intervention. Based on the concept of common transmissible liability to SUD related to illicit drugs, a method enabling quantification of this latent trait has been developed, utilizing high-risk design and item response theory. This study examined properties of a SUD transmissible liability index (TLI) derived using this method. Sons of males with or without SUD were studied longitudinally from preadolescence to young adulthood. The properties of TLI, including its psychometric characteristics, longitudinal risk assessment and ethnic variation, were examined. A pilot twin study was conducted to analyze the composition of TLI’s phenotypic variance. The data suggest that TLI has concurrent, incremental, predictive and discriminant validity, as well as ethnic differences. The data suggest a high heritability of the index in males. The results suggest applicability of the method for genetic and other etiology-related research, and for evaluation of individual risk.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Achenbach TM (1991) Manual for the teacher’s report form and 1991 profile. University of Vermont Department of Psychiatry, Burlington
Achenbach TM, Edelbrock C (1983) Manual for the child behavior checklist and revised child behavior profile. T.M. Achenbach, Burlington
Button TM, Hewitt JK, Rhee SH, Young SE, Corley RP, Stallings MC (2006) Examination of the causes of covariation between conduct disorder symptoms and vulnerability to drug dependence. Twin Res Hum Genet 9:38–45. doi:10.1375/twin.9.1.38
Conners CK (1969) A teacher rating scale for use in drug studies with children. Am J Psychiatry 126:152–156
Efron B, Tibshirani RJ (1993) An introduction to the bootstrap. Chapman & Hall, New York
Embretson SE, Reise SP (2000) Item response theory for psychologists. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates Inc., Mahwah
Falconer DS (1965) The inheritance of liability to certain diseases, estimated from the incidence among relatives. Ann Hum Genet 29:51–76. doi:10.1111/j.1469-1809.1965.tb00500.x
Jenkins EA, Maher BS, Marazita ML, Tarter R, Ganger JB, Watt-Morse M, Vanyukov MM (2006) Pittsburgh registry of infant multiplets (PRIM): an update. Twin Res Hum Genet 9:1006–1008
Kandel D (1975) Stages in adolescent involvement in drug use. Science 190:912–914. doi:10.1126/science.1188374
Kendler KS, Jacobson KC, Prescott CA, Neale MC (2003a) Specificity of genetic and environmental risk factors for use and abuse/dependence of cannabis, cocaine, hallucinogens, sedatives, stimulants, and opiates in male twins. Am J Psychiatry 160:687–695. doi:10.1176/appi.ajp.160.4.687
Kendler KS, Prescott CA, Myers J, Neale MC (2003b) The structure of genetic and environmental risk factors for common psychiatric and substance use disorders in men and women. Arch Gen Psychiatry 60:929–937. doi:10.1001/archpsyc.60.9.929
Kendler KS, Myers J, Prescott CA (2007) Specificity of genetic and environmental risk factors for symptoms of cannabis, cocaine, alcohol, caffeine, and nicotine dependence. Arch Gen Psychiatry 64:1313–1320. doi:10.1001/archpsyc.64.11.1313
Kirisci L, Vanyukov M, Dunn M, Tarter R (2002) Item response theory modeling of substance use: an index based on 10 drug categories. Psychol Addict Behav 16:290–298. doi:10.1037/0893-164X.16.4.290
Kirisci L, Tarter RE, Reynolds M, Vanyukov M (2006) Individual differences in childhood neurobehavior disinhibition predict decision to desist substance use during adolescence and substance use disorder in young adulthood: a prospective study. Addict Behav 31:686–696. doi:10.1016/j.addbeh.2005.05.049
Kirisci L, Tarter R, Mezzich A, Ridenour T, Reynolds M, Vanyukov M (2009) Prediction of cannabis use disorder between boyhood and young adulthood: clarifying the phenotype and environtype. Am J Addict 18:36–47. doi:10.1080/10550490802408829
Kosten TA, Rounsaville BJ (1992) Sensitivity of psychiatric diagnosis based on the best estimate procedure. Am J Psychiatry 149:1225–1227
Lerner RM, Palermo M, Spiro A, Nesselroade AL (1982) Assessing the dimensions of temperamental individuality across the life span: the dimensions of temperament survey. Child Dev 53:149–157
Merikangas KR, Stolar M, Stevens DE, Goulet J, Preisig MA, Fenton B, Zhang H, O’Malley SS, Rounsaville BJ (1998) Familial transmission of substance use disorders. Arch Gen Psychiatry 55:973–979. doi:10.1001/archpsyc.55.11.973
Mezzich AC, Tarter RE, Giancola PR, Kirisci L (2001) The dysregulation inventory: a new scale to assess the risk for substance use disorder. J Child Adolesc Subst Abuse 10:35–43
Neale MC, Cardon LR (1992) Methodology for genetic studies of twins and families. Kluwer Academic Publishers, Dordrecht
Neale MC, Boker SM, Xie G, Maes HH (2003) Mx: statistical modeling 6th edn. VCU Box 900126, Richmond, VA 23298: Department of Psychiatry
Nichols RC, Bilbro WC (1966) Diagnosis of twin zygosity. Acta Genet Stat Med 16:265–275
Nunnally JC, Bernstein IH (1994) Psychometric theory, 3rd edn. McGraw-Hill, New York
Orvaschel H, Puig-Antich J (1987) Schedule for affective disorder and schizophrenia for school age children, epidemiological version: Kiddie-SADS-E (K-SADS-E), 4th edn. Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic, Pittsburgh
Orvaschel H, Puig-Antich J, Chambers W, Tabrizi MA, Johnson R (1982) Retrospective assessment of prepubertal major depression with the Kiddie-SADS-E. J Am Acad Child Psychiatry 21:392–397
Pelham WE, Gnagy EM, Greenslade KE, Milich R (1992) Teacher ratings of DSM-III-R symptoms for the disruptive behavior disorders. J Am Acad Child Adol Psychiatry 31:210–218
Rice JP, Cloninger CR, Reich T (1980) General causal models for sex differences in the familial transmission of multifactorial traits: an application to human spatial visualizing ability. Soc Biol 26:36–47
Spitzer R, Williams J, Miriam G (1987) Instruction manual for the structured clinical interview for DSM-III-R. New State Psychiatric Institute, New York
Strassberg M, Peters K, Marazita M, Ganger J, Watt-Morse M, Tarter R, Murrelle L, Vanyukov M (2002) Pittsburgh registry of infant multiplets (PRIM). Twin Res 5:499–501
Tarter RE, Vanyukov MM (2001) Theoretical and operational framework for research into the etiology of substance use disorders. J Child Adolesc Subst Abuse 10:1–12. doi:10.1300/J029v10n04_01
Tarter R, McBride H, Buonpane N, Schneider D (1977) Differentiation of alcoholics: childhood history of minimal brain dysfunction, family history and drinking pattern. Arch Gen Psychiatry 34:761–768
Tarter RE, Vanyukov M, Kirisci L, Reynolds M, Clark DB (2006) Predictors of marijuana use in adolescents before and after licit drug use: examination of the gateway hypothesis. Am J Psychiatry 163:2134–2140. doi:10.1176/appi.ajp.163.12.2134
Tsuang MT, Lyons MJ, Meyer JM, Doyle T, Eisen SA, Goldberg J, True W, Lin N, Toomey R, Eaves L (1998) Co-occurrence of abuse of different drugs in men: the role of drug-specific and shared vulnerabilities. Arch Gen Psychiatry 55:967–972. doi:10.1001/archpsyc.55.11.967
Vanyukov MM, Tarter RE (2000) Genetic studies of substance abuse. Drug Alcohol Depend 59:101–123. doi:10.1016/S0376-8716(99)00109-X
Vanyukov MM, Kirisci L, Tarter RE, Simkevitz HF, Kirillova GP, Maher BS, Clark DB (2003a) Liability to substance use disorders: 2. A measurement approach. Neurosci Biobehav Rev 27:517–526. doi:10.1016/j.neubiorev.2003.08.003
Vanyukov M, Moss H, Tarter R (2003b) Research designs in family studies. In: Sloboda Z, Bukowski WJ (eds) Handbook of drug abuse prevention: theory science and practice. Kluwer Academic/Plenum Publishers, New York, pp 497–519
Vanyukov MM, Tarter RE, Kirisci L, Kirillova GP, Maher BS, Clark DB (2003c) Liability to substance use disorders: 1. Common mechanisms and manifestations. Neurosci Biobehav Rev 27:507–515. doi:10.1016/j.neubiorev.2003.08.002
Acknowledgments
The authors are indebted to the staff of the Center for Education and Drug Abuse Research, University of Pittsburgh, for their effort and dedication. This study was supported by the National Institute on Drug Abuse grants P50DA005605, R01DA011922, R01DA019157, K02DA018701, K02DA017822, and the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism grant K02AA00296
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Additional information
Handling editor: Michael Joseph Lyons.
An erratum to this article can be found at http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10519-009-9292-x
Appendix
Appendix
See Table 5.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Vanyukov, M.M., Kirisci, L., Moss, L. et al. Measurement of the Risk for Substance Use Disorders: Phenotypic and Genetic Analysis of an Index of Common Liability. Behav Genet 39, 233–244 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10519-009-9269-9
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10519-009-9269-9