Genetic and environmental influences on the familial transmission of externalizing disorders in adoptive and twin offspring.

ABSTRACT: Twin-family studies have shown that parent-child resemblance on substance use disorders and antisocial behavior can be accounted for by the transmission of a general liability to a spectrum of externalizing disorders. Most studies, however, include only biological parents and offspring, which confound genetic and environmental transmission effects.To examine the familial transmission of externalizing disorders among both adoptive (genetically unrelated) and biological relatives to better distinguish genetic and environmental mechanisms of transmission.Family study design wherein each family included the mother, father, and 2 offspring, including monozygotic twin, dizygotic twin, nontwin biological, and adoptive offspring. Structural equation modeling was used to estimate familial transmission effects and their genetic and environmental influences.Participants were recruited from the community and assessed at a university laboratory.A total of 1590 families with biological offspring and 409 families with adoptive offspring. Offspring participants were young adults (mean age, 26.2 years).Symptom counts of conduct disorder, adult antisocial behavior, and alcohol, nicotine, and drug dependence. RESULTS There was a medium effect for the transmission of the general externalizing liability for biological parents (r = 0.27-0.30) but not for adoptive parents (r = 0.03-0.07). In contrast, adoptive siblings exhibited significant similarity on the general externalizing liability (r = 0.21). Biometric analyses revealed that the general externalizing liability was highly heritable (a2 = 0.61) but also exhibited significant shared environmental influences (c2 = 0.20).Parent-child resemblance for substance use disorders and antisocial behavior is primarily due to the genetic transmission of a general liability to a spectrum of externalizing disorders. Including adoptive siblings revealed a greater role of shared environmental influences on the general externalizing liability than previously detected in twin studies and indicates that sibling rather than parent-child similarity indexes important environmental risk factors for externalizing disorders.

SUBMITTER: Hicks BM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3790867 | biostudies-literature | 2013 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature