Genetics of Addictions

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Genetics of alcohol dependence

Alcohol dependence is a complex disease, with genetic and environmental risk factors. Alcohol dependence (commonly known as alcoholism) necessarily has a strong environmental component because exposure to and consumption of alcohol is required for the disorder. But, there is a substantial heritable component to the risk for alcoholism. Among first-degree relatives of alcohol-dependent individuals, the risk of alcohol dependence is 3 to 8 times the baseline population risk.9

Alcohol dependence

Nicotine dependence

The conceptualization of the different stages of smoking is helpful in understanding the varying environmental and genetic contributions to each step in the development of smoking behaviors. To better understand smoking behavior, it is compartmentalized into (1) initiation (the period during which subjects smoke for the first time and experiment with smoking), (2) regular smoking (defined as subjects having smoked at least 100 cigarettes during their lifetime), and (3) nicotine dependence (a

Cocaine dependence

It is estimated that approximately 2.1% of US residents have used cocaine in the past month, the second most prevalent nonmedical drug to marijuana.49 Similar to nicotine and alcohol dependence, cocaine dependence has a strong component of heritability: siblings of cocaine-dependent probands had an estimated relative risk of 1.8 of developing cocaine dependence compared with probands without cocaine-dependent siblings.50 Because of the hypothesis that common genetic factors may lead to

Genetic association of substance dependence with other mental illness

The tendency of subjects with mental illness to use substances has been extensively discussed. A traditional hypothesis was that substance use is a means of self-medicating and dependence is therefore ‘caused’ by mental illness. On the contrary, data have been published that smoking precedes the diagnosis of mental illness and may contribute to the disorder. For example, there is an increased risk of first onset major depression in smokers53, 54, 55, 56 and an increase in depressive symptoms in

Summary

Addictions are common heritable disorders with multiple psychiatric and medical comorbidities. Persons with substance abuse are approximately twice as likely to suffer psychiatric morbidities as those without substance abuse, and have an increased risk of using inpatient and emergency facilities. In addition, public mental health clients had a decreased life span of 13 to 30 years; most deaths are caused by heart disease and cancer. Cigarette smoking is therefore the largest modifiable risk

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  • Cited by (3)

    • A haplotype analysis is consistent with the role of functional HTR1B variants in alcohol dependence

      2012, Drug and Alcohol Dependence
      Citation Excerpt :

      Although the results of genome-wide association studies for alcoholism have not revealed strong findings (Edenberg et al., 2010; Treutlein et al., 2009), the candidate gene approach may still provide significant findings since the polymorphisms and haplotypes studied may be carefully chosen based on a hypothesis-oriented approach. Although there is strong evidence that alcohol metabolism-related genes play a part in alcohol dependence, these genes account for only a small proportion of the genetic variance (Hartz and Bierut, 2010; Huang, 2010; Ösby et al., 2010). Therefore, several efforts to identify other genetic variants associated with the susceptibility to alcoholism have been focusing on genes involved in the neurotransmitter regulation (Huang, 2010; McHugh et al., 2010).

    Disclosures: Dr L Bierut is listed as an inventor on a patent “Markers of Addiction” (US 20070258898), covering the use of certain single nucleotide polymorphisms in determining the diagnosis, prognosis, and treatment of addiction. Dr Bierut acted as a consultant for Pfizer, Inc in 2008.

    Funding support: Collaborative Genetic Study of Nicotine Dependence P01 CA89392 (National Cancer Institute), Study of Addiction: Genetics and Environment U01 HG004422 (National Human Genome Research Institute), Case Control Candidate Gene Study of Addiction R01 DA19963 (National Institute on Drug Abuse), Human Genetics of Addiction: A Study of Common and Specific Factors K02 DA021237 (National Institute on Drug Abuse), Collaborative Study on the Genetics of Alcoholism U10 AA008401 (National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism).

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