Genetic influences on alcohol use across stages of development: GABRA2 and longitudinal trajectories of drunkenness from adolescence to young adulthood.

ABSTRACT: Longitudinal analyses allow us to understand how genetic risk unfolds across development, in a way that is not possible with cross-sectional analyses of individuals at different ages. This has received little attention in genetic association analyses. In this study, we test for genetic effects of GABRA2, a gene previously associated with alcohol dependence, on trajectories of drunkenness from age 14 to 25. We use data from 1070 individuals who participated in the prospective sample of the Collaborative Study on the Genetics of Alcoholism, in order to better understand the unfolding of genetic risk across development. Piecewise linear growth models were fit to model the influence of genotype on rate of increase in drunkenness from early adolescence to young adulthood (14-18 years), the chan

SUBMITTER: Dick DM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3783626 | biostudies-literature | 2014 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature