A genome-wide search for quantitative trait loci influencing substance dependence vulnerability in adolescence

Linkage scan for quantitative traits identifies new regions of interest for substance dependence in the Collaborative Study on the Genetics of Alcoholism (COGA) sample

“…We did not, however, find significant evidence for linkage peaks on chromosome 3, 9 or 17, where Stallings et al, (2003) report linkage for average scores of alcohol and drug dependence, as well as for cannabis dependence, in their sample of adolescent probands from treatment samples, and matched controls. In fact, our highest LOD score for cannabis dependence criteria (LOD 1.92) occurred on chromosome 14.…”

“…Average scores were created by dividing the total number of criteria by the number of substances used. Stallings et al (2003) have previously demonstrated that this assessment of dependence vulnerability is highly heritable (h 2 =48%) and also least likely to be influenced by environmental influences shared by siblings.…”

“…Recently, Hopfer and colleagues (2006) reported linkage on chromosomes 3 and 9 for cannabis dependence criteria in adolescents. Stallings et al (2003) performed linkage analyses, in the same sample of adolescent probands and controls for average number of dependence criteria across alcohol, tobacco and illicit drugs, and reported elevations on chromosomes 3 and 9. Uhl and colleagues (2001) used 1,494 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) to examine genome-wide association for general substance dependence vulnerability in pooled samples from a case-control study.…”

Association of candidate genes with antisocial drug dependence in adolescents

“…Birth years are comparable in the two groups, but age at testing is higher in the controls, since controls were required to have reached their sixteenth birthday prior to assessment to allow for substance exposure. Cases are largely overlapping with the 192 probands used in the familial linkage analyses in Stallings et al, (2003;, but included additional cases in treatment for adolescent antisocial drug dependence without a tested full biological sibling. The distributions of antisocial substance dependence composite scores in the case and control samples are nonoverlapping with a nearly 4 S.D.…”

The CHRNA5/A3/B4 Gene Cluster Variability as an Important Determinant of Early Alcohol and Tobacco Initiation in Young Adults

“…Participants-We evaluated 1075 unrelated individuals, all participants in the Center for the Genetics of Antisocial Drug Dependence (CADD), an ongoing multicomponent, collaborative study at the University of Colorado (20,21). The pool of potential subjects encompassed over 5000 youth; we selected for inclusion in this study those assessed between ages 17 and 21 (mean age 18 ± 1.50).…”