title: Personality traits and vulnerability or resilience to substance use disorders.
abstract: Clear evidence supports a genetic basis for substance use disorders (SUD). Yet, the search to identify individual gene contributions to SUD has been unsuccessful. Here, we argue for the study of endophenotypes within the frame of individual differences, and identify three high-order personality traits that are tied to specific brain systems and genes, and that offer a tractable approach to studying SUD. These personality traits, and the genes that moderate them, interact dynamically with the environment and with the drugs themselves to determine ultimately an individual's vulnerability or resilience to developing SUD.
authors.affiliation: National Institute on Drug Abuse, Intramural Research Program, National Institutes of Health, Baltimore, MD 21224, USA.
authors.forename: Annabelle M
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: Belcher
authors.affiliation: National Institute on Drug Abuse, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD 20892, USA.
authors.forename: Nora D
authors.initials: ND
authors.lastname: Volkow
authors.affiliation: Departments of Psychiatry and Pharmacology and Toxicology, Virginia Commonwealth University School of Medicine, Richmond, VA 23219, USA.
authors.forename: F Gerard
authors.initials: FG
authors.lastname: Moeller
authors.affiliation: National Institute on Drug Abuse, Intramural Research Program, National Institutes of Health, Baltimore, MD 21224, USA. Electronic address: sferre@intra.nida.nih.gov.
authors.forename: Sergi
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Ferré
mesh_terms: D058068:Endophenotypes; D006801:Humans; D007206:Individuality; D010551:Personality; D019966:Substance-Related Disorders / Q000235:genetics* / Q000523:psychology*