Abstract
Alcohol problems are influenced by both genetic and environmental factors. Evidence from twin models and measured gene-environment interaction studies has demonstrated that the importance of genetic influences changes as a function of the environment. Research has also shown that family-centered interventions may protect genetically susceptible youth from developing substance use problems. In this study, we brought large-scale gene identification findings into an intervention study to examine gene-by-intervention effects. Using genome-wide polygenic scores derived from an independent genome-wide association study of adult alcohol dependence, we examined whether an adolescent family-centered intervention would moderate the effect of genetic risk for alcohol dependence on lifetime alcohol dependence in young adulthood, approximately 15 years after the start of intervention, among European American (N = 271; 48.3% in the intervention condition) and African American individuals (N = 192; 51.6% in the intervention condition). We found that among European American individuals, the intervention moderated the association between alcohol dependence polygenic scores and lifetime alcohol dependence diagnosis in young adulthood. Among participants in the control condition, higher alcohol dependence polygenic scores were associated with a greater likelihood of receiving an alcohol dependence diagnosis; in contrast, among participants in the intervention condition, there was no association between alcohol dependence polygenic scores and alcohol dependence diagnosis. No moderation effect was found among African Americans. These results demonstrate that modifying environments of genetically vulnerable youth could reduce the likelihood of developing alcohol dependence and underscore the significance of environmentally focused prevention and intervention efforts.
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Acknowledgements
We gratefully acknowledge the contributions of the Project Alliance staff, Portland Public Schools, and the participating youth and families.
Funding
This project was supported by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Grants R01AA022071 (PI: Dishion) from NIAAA and R01DA07031 (PI: Dishion) from NIDA. This research was also supported in part by NIH grants K02AA018755 (PI: Dick) and K01AA024152 (PI: Salvatore).
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Dr. Thomas Dishion was the developer of the Family Check-Up preventive intervention. The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.
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The University of Oregon’s Institutional Review Board approved all of the study procedures. All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.
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Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.
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Thomas J. Dishion and Danielle M. Dick are co-last authors.
Thomas J. Dishion deceased after submission of this article. We dedicate this article to Tom Dishion’s memory.
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Kuo, S.IC., Salvatore, J.E., Aliev, F. et al. The Family Check-up Intervention Moderates Polygenic Influences on Long-Term Alcohol Outcomes: Results from a Randomized Intervention Trial. Prev Sci 20, 975–985 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11121-019-01024-2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11121-019-01024-2