title: A sibling study of sensation seeking and opiate addiction.
abstract: Substance abuse and its correlative personality traits may have familial associations. We assessed the relationship between sensation seeking and drug use in 201 opiate addicts and 133 of their siblings in a cross-sectional family study. Probands and their drug-abusing siblings showed greater sensation seeking than their non-drug-abusing siblings and this diagnosis accounted for the most variance in regression models. Degree of sensation seeking correlated among drug-abusing siblings and with age of first drug use. The results are discussed in terms of substance abuse typologies and for using sensation-seeking assessments for prevention and treatment of substance abuse.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, Connecticut 06519, USA.
authors.forename: T A
authors.initials: TA
authors.lastname: Kosten
authors.forename: S A
authors.initials: SA
authors.lastname: Ball
authors.forename: B J
authors.initials: BJ
authors.lastname: Rounsaville
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D017668:Age of Onset; D003237:Connecticut / Q000453:epidemiology; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005190:Family; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009293:Opioid-Related Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000235:genetics; D010551:Personality / Q000145:classification* / Q000235:genetics; D010552:Personality Assessment; D010555:Personality Inventory / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D011569:Psychiatric Status Rating Scales; D012044:Regression Analysis; D012737:Sex Factors