Association of Substance Use Disorders with Childhood Trauma but Not African Genetic Heritage in an African American Cohort

Overview

Journal Am J Psychiatry

Specialty Psychiatry

Date 2009 Jul 17

PMID 19605534

Citations 41

Authors

Francesca Ducci

Alec Roy

Pei-Hong Shen

Qiaoping Yuan

Nicole P Yuan

Colin A Hodgkinson

Lynn R Goldman

David Goldman

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Objective: Genetic variation influences differential vulnerability to addiction within populations. However, it remains unclear whether differences in frequencies of vulnerability alleles contribute to disparities between populations and to what extent ancestry correlates with differential exposure to environmental risk factors, including poverty and trauma.

Method: The authors used 186 ancestry-informative markers to measure African ancestry in 407 addicts and 457 comparison subjects self-identified as African Americans. The reference group was 1,051 individuals from the Human Genome Diversity Cell Line Panel, which includes 51 diverse populations representing most worldwide genetic diversity.

Results: African Americans varied in degrees of African, European, Middle Eastern, and Central Asian genetic heritage. The overall level of African ancestry was actually smaller among cocaine, opiate, and alcohol addicts (proportion=0.76-0.78) than nonaddicted African American comparison subjects (proportion=0.81). African ancestry was associated with living in impoverished neighborhoods, a factor previously associated with risk. There was no association between African ancestry and exposure to childhood abuse or neglect, a factor that strongly predicted all types of addictions.

Conclusions: These results suggest that African genetic heritage does not increase the likelihood of genetic risk for addictions. They highlight the complex interrelation between genetic ancestry and social, economic, and environmental conditions and the strong relation of those factors to addiction. Studies of epidemiological samples characterized for genetic ancestry and social, psychological, demographic, economic, cultural, and historical factors are needed to better disentangle the effects of genetic and environmental factors underlying interpopulation differences in vulnerability to addiction and other health disparities.

Citing Articles

Examining the Effects of Adverse Childhood Experiences and Gender on Trauma-Informed Intervention Outcomes.

Tabone J, Rishel C, Hartnett H, Szafran K, Royse R J Child Adolesc Trauma. 2023; 16(1):9-19.

PMID: 36776631 PMC: 9908787. DOI: 10.1007/s40653-022-00456-3.

Family, Individual, and Other Risk Factors Contributing to Risk of Substance Abuse in Young Adults: A Narrative Review.

Alhammad M, Aljedani R, Alsaleh M, Atyia N, Alsmakh M, Alfaraj A Cureus. 2022; 14(12):e32316.

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Trauma-Informed Intervention with Children: Integrating the CANS Assessment with the ARC Framework in a Clinical Setting.

Tabone J, Rishel C, Hartnett H, Szafran K J Child Adolesc Trauma. 2022; 15(1):65-74.

PMID: 35222776 PMC: 8837714. DOI: 10.1007/s40653-021-00357-x.

Gene Variants Associated With a Higher Risk for Alcohol Dependence in Multiethnic Populations.

Oliveira P, de Matos L, Araujo N, Anna H, da Silva E Silva D, Damasceno A Front Psychiatry. 2021; 12:665257.

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Neurobiological mechanisms of early life adversity, blunted stress reactivity and risk for addiction.

alAbsi M, Ginty A, Lovallo W Neuropharmacology. 2021; 188:108519.

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