Characterization of alcohol polygenic risk scores in the context of mental health outcomes: Within-individual and intergenerational analyses in the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Heavy alcohol consumption often co-occurs with mental health problems; this could be due to confounding, shared biological mechanisms, or causal effects. Polygenic risk scores (PRS) for alcohol use can be used to explore this association at critical life stages.

Design

We characterized a PRS reliably associated with patterns of adult alcohol consumption by 1) validating whether it predicts own alcohol use at different life-stages (pregnancy, adolescence) of interest for mental health impact. Additionally, we explored associations of alcohol PRS on mental health phenotypes 2) within-individuals (using own alcohol PRS on own phenotypes) and 3) intergenerationally (using maternal alcohol PRS on offspring phenotypes). We used data from the Avon Longitudinal Study of P

SUBMITTER: Easey KE 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8047864 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature