Sex-specific associations between subcortical morphometry in childhood and adult alcohol consumption: A 17-year follow-up study.

ABSTRACT: Men and women tend to differ in the age of first alcohol consumption, transition into disordered drinking, and the prevalence of alcohol use disorder. Here, we use a unique longitudinal dataset to test for potentially predispositonal sex-biases in brain organization prior to initial alcohol exposure. Our study combines measures of subcortical morphometry gathered in alcohol naive individuals during childhood (mean age: 9.43 years, SD = 2.06) with self-report measures of alcohol use in the same individuals an average of 17 years later (N = 81, 46 males, 35 females). We observe that pediatric amygdala and hippocampus volume both show sex-biased relationships with adult drinking. Specifically, females show a stronger association between subcortical volumetric reductions in childhood and peak

SUBMITTER: Mankiw C 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8350402 | biostudies-literature | 2021

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature