Alcoholism, clinical and experimental research
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Alcohol. Clin. Exp. Res. · Oct 2019
Unpacking Genetic Risk Pathways for College Student Alcohol Consumption: The Mediating Role of Impulsivity.
The period of college represents a particularly risky developmental stage with regard to alcohol use, as college students engage in more risky drinking behaviors than their noncollege peers, and such problematic alcohol use is associated with far-reaching negative consequences. Existing findings from genome-wide association studies (GWAS) indicate that alcohol consumption has a complex polygenic etiology. Currently, there is a lack of studies examining genetic risk for alcohol consumption using polygenic risk scores (PRS) in college samples. In this study, we examined whether alcohol-specific and risky behavior-related PRS were longitudinally associated with alcohol consumption among college students and whether this effect might be partially mediated by impulsivity domains. ⋯ The current results found that PRS related to more broadly defined risky behaviors predicted alcohol consumption across college years and that this association was partially mediated via dimensions of impulsivity.
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Alcohol. Clin. Exp. Res. · Jul 2019
Early-Life Adversity and Blunted Stress Reactivity as Predictors of Alcohol and Drug use in Persons With COMT (rs4680) Val158Met Genotypes.
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. ⋯ ELA leads to blunted stress reactivity and, independently, contributes to potentially risky drinking and drug-use behaviors in persons carrying 1 or 2 copies of the COMT 158Met allele. The results reinforce the impact of early experience on the stress axis and on risky behaviors, and they point to the 158Met allele as conveying a vulnerability to the early environment.
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Alcohol. Clin. Exp. Res. · Jul 2019
Do Associations Between Alcohol Use and Alcohol Use Disorder Vary by Weight Status? Results From the National Epidemiologic Survey on Alcohol and Related Conditions-III.
Understanding whether the associations between alcohol use and alcohol use disorder (AUD) differ by weight status may be useful in screening for AUD in populations where obesity is common. We aimed to determine whether the associations between alcohol use and AUD differ by weight status. ⋯ The associations between some measures of alcohol use and AUD differed by weight status, with inconsistent results between males and females. Alcohol use thresholds typically used in AUD screening may be too high in males with class 3 obesity.
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Alcohol. Clin. Exp. Res. · May 2019
Myelin Water Fraction Imaging of the Brain in Children with Prenatal Alcohol Exposure.
Prenatal alcohol exposure (PAE) is linked to alterations of cerebral white matter, including volume and nonspecific diffusion magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) indices of microstructure in humans. Some animal models of PAE have demonstrated myelination deficiencies, but myelin levels have not yet been evaluated in individuals with PAE. Multiecho T2 MRI offers a quantitative method to estimate myelin water fraction (MWF; related to myelin content) noninvasively, which was used here to evaluate brain myelination in children with PAE. ⋯ Given comparable MRI-derived myelination fraction measures in PAE relative to controls, white matter alterations shown in other imaging studies, such as diffusion tensor imaging, may reflect microstructural anomalies related to axon caliber and density.
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Alcohol. Clin. Exp. Res. · Feb 2019
Brain Glutamate, GABA, and Glutamine Levels and Associations with Recent Drinking in Treatment-Naïve Individuals with Alcohol Use Disorder Versus Light Drinkers.
Proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy (1 H-MRS) studies have demonstrated abnormal levels of a variety of neurometabolites in inpatients/outpatients with alcohol use disorder (AUD) following acute alcohol withdrawal relative to healthy controls. In contrast, few studies have compared neurometabolite levels between less severe, treatment-naïve AUD individuals and light drinkers (LD) or related them to recent alcohol consumption. The present study compared neurometabolite levels between treatment-naïve AUD and LD individuals. ⋯ The present study demonstrated significantly lower levels of prefrontal γ-aminobutyric acid and glutamine in treatment-naïve individuals with AUD relative to LD. Whether these findings reflect the neurotoxic consequence and/or neuroadaptive response of alcohol consumption versus a predrinking trait, and therefore a more durable neurochemical disturbance, awaits elucidation from longitudinal studies.