Texas Family Health Patterns: A Study Across Generations

Overview

The researchers are studying factors that may increase the risk for alcohol and drug use in individuals who do not have any problems with these substances. This study will be looking at health behaviors in young adults compared to their family's health behaviors and lifestyle. The investigators plan to study genetic differences in people with and without a family history of alcoholism. The researchers hope to learn how a family history of alcoholism, early life adversity and different genotypes shape personal characteristics associated with a risk for alcoholism.

The Oklahoma Family Health Patterns project is an intensive study of psychological, behavioral, and stress reactivity characteristics in healthy young adults with a family history of alcoholism (FH+) with a goal of identifying characteristics that place these persons at elevated risk for the disorder. The investigators have recently identified early life adverse experience (ELA), including physical and sexual abuse and separation from parents, as occurring with disproportionate impact in FH+, and the investigators have shown that ELA accounts for diminished stress reactivity, behavioral impulsivity, and poor mood regulation, all of which are risk factors for alcohol and other substance use disorders. The impact of ELA in the FH+ population demands to be studied further in a Gene x Environment interaction given the known positive feedbacks between FH+ and ELA. The investigators' goal is to carry out a G x E interaction study by genotyping the investigators' FH x ELA and examining the impact of genotype on the broad range of personal characteristics currently under study in this project. Aim 1. Examine the differential impact of ELA on psychological and behavioral characteristics of FH+ vs. FH- groups using an expanded sample of volunteers. Aim 2. Use the investigators' larger sample to carry out a Gene x Environment analysis to test specific alleles that are strongly suspected of influencing activity in brain motivational systems, expanding on work the investigators initiated with NIAAA thanks to a supplement to this R01 (AA012207-S1). Aim 3. Test specific aspects of temperament as endophenotypes linking FH and ELA to behavioral, cognitive, and stress reactivity as aspects of the person's phenotype. Aim 4. Increase the investigators' recruitment base by screening and testing volunteers at a second site, the University of Texas HSC, San Antonio, where the investigators currently conduct our neuroimaging studies. Alcoholism is a costly burden to society, but risk factors for alcoholism are poorly understood. The vast majorities of studies focuses on alcoholic patients but are unable to disentangle preexisting influences from the effects of alcohol intake history. The investigators' high-risk study design can be of value by contrasting FH+ and FH- with regard to environmental contributors and genetic vulnerabilities that contribute to behavioral risk factors.