Early-Life Adversity and Blunted Stress Reactivity as Predictors of Alcohol and Drug use in Persons With COMT (rs4680) Val158Met Genotypes.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Risk for alcoholism may be enhanced by exposure to early-life adversity (ELA) in persons with genetic vulnerabilities. We examined ELA in the presence of a common variant of the gene for the enzyme catechol-O-methyltransferase (COMT, Val158Met, rs4680) in relation to cortisol reactivity, the onset of early drinking, and experimentation with drugs.

Methods

Saliva cortisol reactivity to speech and mental arithmetic stress was measured in 480 healthy young adults (23.5 years of age, 50% females) who experienced either 0, 1, or ≥ 2 forms of ELA during childhood and adolescence, provided information on use of alcohol and recreational drugs, and were genotyped for the Val158Met polymorphism.

Results

ELA led to progressively smaller cortisol responses in the Met/M

SUBMITTER: Lovallo WR 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6602827 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature