Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Friedrich-Alexander University Erlangen-Nürnberg (FAU), Germany.
Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Friedrich-Alexander University Erlangen-Nürnberg (FAU), Germany.
Prog Neuropsychopharmacol Biol Psychiatry. 2018 Aug 30;86:370-378. doi: 10.1016/j.pnpbp.2018.02.012. Epub 2018 Feb 27.
Alcohol binge drinking behavior is an important public health issue. Causal rodent and human associational studies show that reinforcement of prenatal androgen signaling increases alcohol consumption in adulthood. However, the effects of prenatal androgen exposure on adult binge drinking patterns have not been investigated yet.
We analyzed data from 2225 participants of an online survey (conducted 06-07/2016) to evaluate biomarkers for prenatal androgen exposure (second-to-fourth finger length ratio [2D:4D], age at spermarche or menarche as hallmark for pubertal onset) in binge drinking (≥1 episode of 15+, 10+, and/or 5+ standard drinks of ~13 g of alcohol within 2 h during the 24 month- and 2 week-recall periods).
Men reported binge drinking more often than women (ORs > 1.4, P < .001). For the 24 month-recall period, binge drinkers showed lower 2D:4D (P = .006) and reported later pubertal onset (P = .022) than non-binge drinkers. These findings consistently suggest excess prenatal androgen exposure in adult binge drinkers. Moreover, 2D:4D was negatively associated with severity (15+/10+/5+/non-binge drinking, P = .005) and frequency of binge drinking episodes (P = .044). All of these effects were stronger in men than in women. For the 2 week-recall period, the biomarkers were not significantly related to binge drinking behavior.
Our results indicate that increased prenatal androgen exposure is involved in the development of alcohol binge drinking behavior in adults.
酗酒行为是一个重要的公共健康问题。因果关系的啮齿动物和人类关联研究表明，产前雄激素信号的增强会增加成年后的酒精摄入量。然而，产前雄激素暴露对成年酗酒模式的影响尚未被研究。
我们分析了 2225 名在线调查参与者的数据（于 2016 年 6 月至 7 月进行），以评估产前雄激素暴露的生物标志物（第二到第四指长度比[2D：4D]，精子发生或初潮的年龄作为青春期开始的标志）与酗酒（≥1 次 15+、10+和/或 5+标准饮料，在 24 个月和 2 周回忆期间内 2 小时内饮用约 13g 酒精）之间的关系。
男性报告酗酒的频率高于女性（ORs>1.4，P<.001）。对于 24 个月的回忆期，酗酒者的 2D：4D 较低（P=.006），青春期开始较晚（P=.022），而非酗酒者。这些发现一致表明，成年酗酒者存在过多的产前雄激素暴露。此外，2D：4D 与酗酒的严重程度（15+/10+/5+/非酗酒）呈负相关（P=.005）和酗酒发作的频率（P=.044）。所有这些影响在男性中都比女性更强。对于 2 周的回忆期，生物标志物与酗酒行为没有显著关系。
我们的研究结果表明，产前雄激素暴露的增加与成年酗酒行为的发展有关。
