Journal of Substance Abuse Treatment
Volume 38, Issue 2 , Pages 178-190, March 2010

Genetic, personality, and environmental predictors of drug use in adolescents

  • Bradley T. Conner, Ph.D.

      Affiliations

    • Department of Psychology, Temple University, Philadelphia, PA 19122, USA
    • ,
  • Gerhard S. Hellemann, Ph.D.

      Affiliations

    • Biostatistics Core, Semel Institute for Neuroscience & Human Behavior, David Geffen School of Medicine, University of California Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA
    • ,
  • Terry L. Ritchie, Ph.D.

      Affiliations

    • Alcohol Research Center, Department of Psychiatry & Biobehavioral Sciences, Semel Institute for Neuroscience & Human Behavior, David Geffen School of Medicine, University of California Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA
    • ,
  • Ernest P. Noble, Ph.D., M.D.

      Affiliations

    • Alcohol Research Center, Department of Psychiatry & Biobehavioral Sciences, Semel Institute for Neuroscience & Human Behavior, David Geffen School of Medicine, University of California Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA
    • Corresponding Author InformationCorresponding author. UCLA Alcohol Research Center, 760 Westwood Plaza, Los Angeles, CA, USA. Tel.: +1 310 825 1891; fax: +1 310 206 7309.

Received 3 February 2009; received in revised form 23 June 2009; accepted 21 July 2009. published online 01 September 2009.

Abstract 

During adolescence there is a significant increase in risk-taking behavior, including experimenting with alcohol and drugs, which can lead to drug dependence. A new hypothesis regarding the genetic mechanisms that lead to drug use is tested using adolescent Caucasian children of alcoholics (57 males, 54 females; mean age = 14.5 years) data. Variables included in the study were dopaminergic genes (ANKK1 TaqI A, DRD2 C957T, DRD4 7R, COMT Val/Met substitution, and SLC6A3 9R) and a GABAergic gene (GABRB3), all combinations of genes, a count of the number of hypodopaminergic genotypes, personality traits, neurocognitive factors, depressive symptoms, and environmental factors. Separate predictive models were found for males and females. Hypodopaminergic functioning predicted drug use in males; however, in females, a deleterious environment was the salient predictor. This preliminary study suggests that it is possible to identify children at risk for problematic drug use prior to the onset of drug dependence.

Keywords: Dopamine genes, GABA genes, Hypodopaminergic functioning, Drug use, Recursive partitioning, Decision tree analysis

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PII: S0740-5472(09)00122-6

doi:10.1016/j.jsat.2009.07.004

Refers to erratum:

  • Genetic, personality, and environmental predictors of drug use in adolescents

    Bradley T. Conner
    Journal of Substance Abuse Treatment June 2010 (Vol. 38, Issue 4, Page 412)

Journal of Substance Abuse Treatment
Volume 38, Issue 2 , Pages 178-190, March 2010

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