Transactions Between Substance Use Intervention, the Oxytocin Receptor (OXTR) Gene, and Peer Substance Use Predicting Youth Alcohol Use

Abstract

This study investigated the Oxytocin Receptor gene’s (OXTR) moderation of associations between exposure to a substance misuse intervention, average peer substance use, and adolescents’ own alcohol use during the 9th grade. OXTR genetic risk was measured using five Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms (SNPs) and peer substance use was based on youths’ nominated closest friends’ own reports of alcohol, cigarette and marijuana use, based on data from the PROSPER Project. Regression models revealed several findings. First, low OXTR risk was linked to affiliating with friends who reported less substance use in the intervention condition but not the control condition. Second, affiliating with high substance-using friends predicted youth alcohol risk regardless of OXTR risk or intervention condition. Third, although high OXTR risk youth in the intervention condition who associated with low substance-using friends reported somewhat higher alcohol use than comparable youth in the control group, the absolute level of alcohol use among these youth was still among the lowest in the sample.

Associations between alcohol dehydrogenase genes and alcohol use across early and middle adolescence: Moderation × Preventive intervention

“…These findings document the similarity of drinking patterns in the PROSPER sample, as well as the gPROSPER subsample, to national patterns, and demonstrate the generalizability of our findings. That intervention status alone was not significantly related to early adolescent increases and 9 th -grade levels of adolescent drinking, although related to differences in slope across mid-adolescence, was not surprising given similar null results from prior analyses of genetically informative PROSPER subsamples of in-home (Cleveland et al, 2015) and in-school participants (Cleveland et al, 2017). …”

“…Second, in parallel with findings from Vandenbergh et al (2016) that PROSPER interventions remove the effects of the CHRNA5 genotype on high school smoking, we expected PROSPER interventions to moderate associations between ADH genes and drinking trajectories, such that associations between genes and alcohol growth will exist among control community adolescents but not among intervention community adolescents. Based upon the prior null results for the effects of PROSPER interventions on the specific alcohol use outcome considered here based on genetic subsamples of PROSPER similar to that examined here (see Cleveland et al, 2017), we do not predict a main effect of intervention condition.…”

“…This analysis used the same alcohol use measure at 9th grade considered in the current analyses across 6th to 12th grades. Most recently, using a sample of PROSPER participants with in-school data similar in size to the sample used here to examine the influence of OXTR gene affiliations with substance-using peers and adolescents’ own alcohol use, Cleveland et al (in press) did not find a main effect of intervention on the same alcohol use outcome considered here.…”

A systematic review: Candidate gene and environment interaction on alcohol use and misuse among adolescents and young adults

“…Finally, one study (mixed races) found that when early adolescents did not receive substance misuse prevention at age 11, even when their peers did not frequently use substances, those carrying more susceptible alleles of five OXTR SNPs (rs6770632, rs53576, rs2254298, rs4686302, rs1488467) drank more frequently at age 14 than the low genetic risk group. 87…”

The Implications of Genetics for Prevention and Intervention Programming

“…In the absence of high density genetic data, ancestry informative markers (AIMs) can be used measure genetic ancestry. Cleveland et al (2017) analyzed a set of 34 AIMs (SNPs) using principal coordinates analysis to create a continuous measure of European/Non-European genetic ancestry (PC1). A European ancestry cutoff score derived from PC1 closely approximated self-…”