Michael C. Stallings1, S. E. Young1, D. R. Miles1, J. K. Hewitt1, D. W. Fulker1, T. J. Crowley2
The familial transmission of substance abuse risk may involve specific liabilities to the reinforcing properties of particular substances, common antecedants underlying polysubstance use and general patterns of deviance, or combinations of both. This study examined the familial aggregation of substance dependence symptoms for nicotine, alcohol and marijuana in 185 selected families with a male adolescent proband in treatment for substance abuse and delinquency, and 185 control families matched on characteristics of the treatment probands (age of the proband, ethnicity and geographic location of residence). DSM-III-R symptoms for psychoactive substance dependence for nicotine, alcohol and marijuana were assessed by structured interview. Multi- variate familial transmission models assessing vertical parent- offsrping transmission, horizontal residual sibling resemblance, and assortative mating were used to test hypotheses concerning the specificity or generality of familial transmission for these three substances. Model-fitting results using rank-normalized symptom counts indicated only moderate parent-offspring transmission (approximately 20 percent). The transmissible latent factors were substantially intercorrelated, suggesting common familial antecedents underlying the transmission of dependence symptoms for these substances.
Address: Institute for Behavioral Genetics, Campus Box 447, University of Colorado, Boulder, CO 80309-0447, Ph:(303) 492-2826, Fax:(303), 492-8063, Email: Michael.Stallings@Colorado.Edu
1Institute for Behavioral Genetics, University of Colorado, Boulder, CO 80309 2Department of Psychiatry, University of Colorado School of Medicine, Denver, CO 80262 3Supported by NIDA Grants DA-11015, DA-05131, DA-10540, and NICHD Grant HD-07289