title: A twin study of non-alcohol substance abuse.
abstract: Except for alcohol abuse, little is known about the familial aggregation for substance abuse. Here we report twin resemblance for non-alcohol substance use in the Washington University Twin Series, wherein probands were identified by consecutive admission to psychiatric facilities in the St. Louis area. A 5-point substance abuse scale was constructed with values anchored by never used drugs (1) to drug dependence (5). Year of birth was the most powerful predictor of drug use--younger twins scored far higher than older twins. Either heritability or common environment had to be included in the regression model to avoid a significant drop in explained variance, but which was more important could not be resolved. The correlation for identical twins exceeded that for fraternal twins, suggesting the possibility of a heritable factor.
authors.affiliation: Institute for Behavioral Genetics, University of Colorado, Boulder 80309-0447, USA.
authors.forename: L M
authors.initials: LM
authors.lastname: Gynther
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Carey
authors.forename: I I
authors.initials: II
authors.lastname: Gottesman
authors.forename: G P
authors.initials: GP
authors.lastname: Vogler
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D004200:Diseases in Twins / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000235:genetics*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D008957:Models, Genetic; D015233:Models, Statistical; D019966:Substance-Related Disorders / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000235:genetics*