Alcohol use, psychiatric disorders and gambling behaviors: A multi-sample study testing causal relationships via the co-twin control design.

ABSTRACT: Human laboratory studies and twin research investigating relationships between alcohol use/pathology and gambling generally have yielded contradictory results, sometimes suggesting causal relationships and common genetic risk factors. 2860 individuals (mean age: 25.60, s.d = 3.21, 50.62% female) from separate clinical (n = 636) and community based (twin) samples (n = 2224) were used to assess associations between past year alcohol use and frequency of past year gambling behaviors (gambling frequency). After adjustment for demographic and psychiatric covariates, individual-level analyses detected that increased alcohol use was associated with more frequent gambling behaviors in twin and clinical samples. Co-twin control models were then used to test potential causal (direct) relationships b

SUBMITTER: Huggett SB 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7170180 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature