COMPONENTS:

Component II: Familial Aggregation of Antisocial Substance Dependence

Antisocial behavior and substance use disorders develop and change over time. In order to better understand the influences on these vulnerabilites, component II is a follow-up assessment of families of adolescents formerly in treatment for substance dependence and conduct disorder, and community control adolescents and their families (matched for gender, age, ethnicity and residential location).

Principal Investigator: Michael C. Stallings
Co-Investigator: Robin P. Corley, Soo Rhee

During the first five years of the center, beginning in 1997, we accomplished the following highlights for Component II:

• Recruited and obtained core assessments and DNA samples from 259 treatment families and 115 control families (1447 individuals); expects to complete 273 treatment families and 200 control families (approximately 1850 individuals) by the end of the first 5-year funding cycle.
• Established that the community control sample is representative of other population-based samples; these data (in conjunction with Component III and Component IV community samples) have been used to operationalize age- and sex- norms for our primary variables.
• Developed methodology for combining clinical and control families in joint family pedigree analyses that provide a powerful analytical design for understanding familial and genetic influences on SUD and comorbid psychopathology; the methods have been extended to make use of non-normal psychiatric symptom counts.
• Demonstrated substantial familial aggregation for SUD and comorbid psychiatric disorders; family influences transmitted from parents to children (including heritable influences) account for a substantial proportion of the observed familial resemblance; comorbidity is due in large part to common familial influences (i.e., generalized risk).
• Demonstrated that marital assortment for SUD and antisocial behavior is substantial and should be considered when evaluating parent-offspring and sibling resemblance.