title: Borderline personality traits and substance use: genetic factors underlie the association with smoking and ever use of cannabis, but not with high alcohol consumption.
abstract: Borderline personality disorder (BPD) and substance use disorders often co-occur. Both disorders are heritable and family studies showed that there are familial factors that increase the risk for BPD as well as substance use/abuse. This is the first study that investigates whether the association of borderline personality traits (BPT) with substance use reflects an underlying genetic vulnerability or nongenetic familial influences. To this end we analyzed data of 5,638 Dutch and Belgian twins aged between 21-50 years from 3,567 families. Significant associations between BPT and high alcohol consumption (r = .192), regular smoking (r = .299), and ever use of cannabis (r = .254) were found. Bivariate genetic analyses showed that the associations of BPT and substance use had different etiologies. For regular smoking and for ever use of cannabis, the correlation with BPT was explained by common genetic factors. Interestingly, for high alcohol consumption and BPT the association was explained by unique environmental factors that influence both traits rather than common genetic factors.
authors.affiliation: VU University Amsterdam, Department of Biological Psychology, van der Boechorststraat 1, 1081 BT Amsterdam, The Netherlands. m.distel@ggzingeest.nl
authors.forename: Marijn A
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Distel
authors.forename: Tim J
authors.initials: TJ
authors.lastname: Trull
authors.forename: Marleen M H
authors.initials: MM
authors.lastname: de Moor
authors.forename: Jacqueline M
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Vink
authors.forename: Lot M
authors.initials: LM
authors.lastname: Geels
authors.forename: Jenny H D A
authors.initials: JH
authors.lastname: van Beek
authors.forename: Meike
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Bartels
authors.forename: Gonneke
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Willemsen
authors.forename: Evert
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Thiery
authors.forename: Catherine A
authors.initials: CA
authors.lastname: Derom
authors.forename: Michael C
authors.initials: MC
authors.lastname: Neale
authors.forename: Dorret I
authors.initials: DI
authors.lastname: Boomsma
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000428:Alcohol Drinking / Q000235:genetics*; D001530:Belgium; D001883:Borderline Personality Disorder / Q000235:genetics*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008385:Marijuana Smoking / Q000235:genetics*; D008875:Middle Aged; D009426:Netherlands; D010551:Personality / Q000235:genetics*; D010552:Personality Assessment; D012042:Registries; D012907:Smoking / Q000235:genetics*; D014427:Twins / Q000235:genetics