Mate similarity for substance dependence and antisocial personality disorder symptoms among parents of patients and controls.
Substance dependence (SD) and antisocial personality disorder (ASPD) are highly comorbid and aggregate in families. Mating assortment may be an important process contributing to this familial aggregation.


OBJECTIVE
Symptom counts of substance dependence, antisocial personality disorder, and retrospectively assessed conduct disorder (CD) will be correlated significantly among parents of youth in treatment for substance use and conduct problems and, separately, among parents of community controls.


METHODS
We examined SD, ASPD, and CD among 151 pairs of parents of adolescents in treatment for substance use and conduct problems, and in 206 pairs of parents of control subjects.


RESULTS
For average dependence symptoms (ADS) (the sum of across-drug substance dependence symptoms divided by the number of substance categories meeting minimum threshold use) mother-father correlations were 0.40 for patients and 0.28 for controls. Mother--father correlations for ASPD symptom count were 0.33 for patients and 0.26 for controls and for CD symptom count were 0.31 for patients (all P < 0.01) and 0.10 for controls (P = 0.14).


CONCLUSIONS
Spousal correlations for ADS and ASPD, suggest substantial non-random mating. Results support gender differences in homogamy for SD. Behavior genetic studies of these disorders need to account for assortment to avoid biases in estimates of genetic and environmental effects.
Division of Substance Dependence, Department of Psychiatry, University of Colorado School of Medicine, 4200 E. Ninth Avenue, C268-35, Denver, CO 80262, USA. joseph.sakai@uchsc.edu
J T
JT
Sakai
M C
MC
Stallings
S K
SK
Mikulich-Gilbertson
R P
RP
Corley
S E
SE
Young
C J
CJ
Hopfer
T J
TJ
Crowley
D000328:Adult; D000987:Antisocial Personality Disorder / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000523:psychology; D016009:Chi-Square Distribution; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008393:Marriage / Q000523:psychology / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D008875:Middle Aged; D010290:Parents / Q000523:psychology; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D018709:Statistics, Nonparametric; D019966:Substance-Related Disorders / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000523:psychology