A twin study of psychomotor and physiological responses to an acute dose of alcohol

Martin, Nicholas; Oakeshott, J. G.; Gibson, JB; Starmer, G. A.; Perl, J; Wilks, Ann Verona

doi:10.1007/bf01070893

Cited by 105 publications

(65 citation statements)

References 17 publications

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“…These findings are consistent with a wider literature reporting increases in the relative strength of the genetic component of the phenotypic variance in response to increased environmental stress, such as for weight in the plant Arabidopsis thaliana in response to increasing temperature stress (Lagridge & Griffing, 1959), for reproductive performance in mice in response to increasing stress in early pregnancy (Belyaev & Borodin, 1982) and for human psychomotor performance tasks in response to increasing alcohol dose (Martin et al, 1985). Further references can be found in Pani & Lasley(1972), Barton & Turelli (1989) and Hoffmann & Parsons (1991).…”

Section: Introductionsupporting

confidence: 80%

Parent-offspring regression and extreme environments

Ward

1994

Heredity

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The parent-offspring regression coefficient (narrow heritability) has often been reported to increase with the extremity of environmental conditions. This is frequently interpreted as evidence for the expression of 'new genes' under novel environmental conditions. Strictly speaking, however, the parameters of the additive-dominance model of quantitative inheritance only have meaning under a given set of environmental conditions. It is not clear what a change of parameter values, in response to a change of experimental conditions, means in terms of biological processes going on beneath the phenotypic level. The parent-offspring regression coefficient is therefore reconsidered here from the perspective of a biological model of gene expression. It is demonstrated that the parent-offspring regression coefficient can increase directly with the average value of the environmental contribution to the phenotype. More generally, an increase in the strength of parent-offspring regression with extremity of the environment does not necessarily indicate that any change has taken place in the genetic basis of phenotypic value.

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Section: Introductionsupporting

confidence: 80%

Parent-offspring regression and extreme environments

Ward

1994

Heredity

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“…Newlin and Thompson, 1990;see Pollock, 1992 for a meta-analysis). Studies of monozygotic twins show greater similarity in sensitivity to an alcohol challenge than do dizygotic twins (Martin et al, 1985;Martin, 1988;Heath and Martin, 1992;Viken et al, 2003), providing evidence that alcohol sensitivity is an inherited trait. In view of this literature, one interpretation of the findings reported here is that the risk of alcoholism associated in a population study with the G-allele (Covault et al, 2004) may, in part, be mediated by the decreased subjective response to alcohol of individuals carrying this allele.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 98%

GABRA2 Alleles Moderate the Subjective Effects of Alcohol, Which are Attenuated by Finasteride

Pierucci‐Lagha

Covault

Feinn

et al. 2005

Neuropsychopharmacol

133

109

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GABA A receptors are involved in the subjective effects of alcohol. Endogenous neuroactive steroids interact with GABA A receptors to mediate several behavioral effects of alcohol in rodents. Based on a haplotypic association of alcohol dependence with the gene encoding the GABA A receptor a-2 subunit (GABRA2), we examined whether GABRA2 alleles are associated with the subjective response to alcohol. We also examined whether finasteride (a 5-a steroid reductase inhibitor), which blocks the synthesis of some neuroactive steroids, reduces the subjective response to alcohol. In all, 27 healthy social drinkers (15 males) completed a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled study of high-dose finasteride. After being pretreated with study drug, subjects consumed three alcoholic drinks. Subjective effects were measured repeatedly over the ascending blood alcohol curve. To examine the moderating role of genetic variation in GABRA2, a single-nucleotide polymorphism that was informative in association studies was included as a factor in the analysis. Subjects homozygous for the more common A-allele (n ¼ 7) showed more subjective effects of alcohol than did individuals with one or two copies of the alcohol dependence-associated G-allele (n ¼ 20, including two homozygotes). Among the A-allele homozygotes, there was a greater reduction in several subjective effects during the finasteride session compared to the placebo session. These findings provide preliminary evidence that the risk of alcoholism associated with GABRA2 alleles may be related to differences in the subjective response to alcohol. The effects of finasteride provide indirect evidence for a mediating role of neuroactive steroids in some of the subjective effects of alcohol.

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“…The cohort first completed a mailed questionnaire in 1980-1982 when they were 18 years or older, and the twins were subsequently followed up with a second mailed questionnaire in [1988][1989][1990]. 17,18 In 1992-1993, telephone interviews of twins were conducted, and this direct interview provided the data for analyses in this article. 19 Data were obtained from both members of 2685 twin pairs.…”

Section: Subjectsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Major Depressive Disorder in a Community-Based Twin Sample: Are There Different Genetic and Environmental Contributions for Men and Women?

Bierut

Heath

Bucholz

et al. 1999

Archives of General Psychiatry

221

129

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Background: Depression affects more women than men and often aggregates in families. Using a communitybased sample of twins, we examined the contributions of genetic and environmental factors to the risk of developing major depressive disorder and the effect of sex and different definitions of depression on the relative contributions of genetic and environmental effects. Sex differences in genetic effects were also studied.

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A twin study of psychomotor and physiological responses to an acute dose of alcohol

Cited by 105 publications

References 17 publications

Parent-offspring regression and extreme environments

Parent-offspring regression and extreme environments

GABRA2 Alleles Moderate the Subjective Effects of Alcohol, Which are Attenuated by Finasteride

Major Depressive Disorder in a Community-Based Twin Sample: Are There Different Genetic and Environmental Contributions for Men and Women?

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