Department of Psychological Sciences, University of Missouri, USA.
J Abnorm Psychol. 2011 Aug;120(3):585-95. doi: 10.1037/a0022648.
The manifestation of alcohol dependence at different developmental stages may be associated with different genetic and environmental factors. Taking a developmental approach, we characterized interaction between the dopamine receptor 4 variable number tandem repeat (DRD4 VNTR) polymorphism and developmentally specific environmental factors (childhood adversity, college/Greek organization involvement, and delayed adult role transition) on alcohol dependence during emerging and young adulthood. Prospective data were obtained from a cohort of 234 White individuals (56% women, 44% men) who were followed up at ages 18 through 34. A longitudinal hierarchical factor model was estimated to model a traitlike persistent alcohol dependence factor throughout emerging and young adulthood and 2 residual statelike alcohol dependence factors limited to emerging adulthood and young adulthood, respectively. We accounted for those alcohol dependence factors by modeling 3 two-way interaction effects between the DRD4 VNTR polymorphism and the 3 developmentally specific environment factors. Carriers of the DRD4 long allele showed greater susceptibility to environmental effects; they showed more persistent symptoms of alcohol dependence as childhood adversity increased and more alcohol dependence symptoms limited to emerging adulthood as college/Greek organization involvement increased. Alcohol dependence among noncarriers of the long allele, however, did not differ as a function of those environments. Although replication is necessary, these findings highlight the importance of repeated phenotypic assessments across development and modeling both distal and proximal environments and their interaction with genetic susceptibility at specific developmental stages.
在不同的发育阶段，酒精依赖的表现可能与不同的遗传和环境因素有关。采用发展的方法，我们描述了多巴胺受体 4 可变数串联重复（DRD4 VNTR）多态性与发育特异性环境因素（儿童期逆境、大学/希腊组织参与和成年后角色转变延迟）之间的相互作用，这些因素与成年早期和青年期的酒精依赖有关。前瞻性数据来自一个由 234 名白人个体（56%为女性，44%为男性）组成的队列，这些个体在 18 至 34 岁时接受了随访。我们使用纵向分层因子模型来模拟成年早期和青年期的特质性持续酒精依赖因子，以及分别局限于成年早期和青年期的 2 个残留状态性酒精依赖因子。我们通过对 DRD4 VNTR 多态性与 3 个发育特异性环境因素之间的 3 个双向交互作用进行建模，来解释这些酒精依赖因素。DRD4 长等位基因携带者对环境影响的敏感性更高；随着儿童期逆境的增加，他们表现出更持久的酒精依赖症状，而随着大学/希腊组织参与的增加，他们表现出更多局限于成年早期的酒精依赖症状。然而，非长等位基因携带者的酒精依赖则不受这些环境的影响。尽管需要进一步复制，但这些发现强调了在特定发育阶段，跨发展进行重复表型评估以及对远距和近端环境及其与遗传易感性的相互作用进行建模的重要性。
