Heritability of substance abuse and antisocial behavior: A study of monozygotic twins reared apart

• Published in: Biological psychiatry (1969) Vol. 27; no. 12; pp. 1293 - 1304
• Main Authors: Grove, William M., Eckert, Elke D., Heston, Leonard, Bouchard, Thomas J., Segal, Nancy, Lykken, David T.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York, NY Elsevier Inc 15.06.1990; Elsevier Science
• Subjects: Addictive behaviors; Adolescent; Adult; Adult and adolescent clinical studies; Aged; Alcoholism - genetics; Alcoholism - psychology; Antisocial Personality Disorder - genetics; Antisocial Personality Disorder - psychology; Biological and medical sciences; Diseases in Twins - genetics; Female; Humans; Male; Medical sciences; Middle Aged; Phenotype; Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry; Psychopathology. Psychiatry; Risk Factors; Social Environment; Substance-Related Disorders - genetics; Substance-Related Disorders - psychology; Twins, Monozygotic - genetics; Human; Drug abuse; Statistical analysis; Etiology; Family study; Inheritance; Prediction; Monozygotic twin; Social behavior disorder
• ISSN: 0006-3223; 1873-2402
• DOI: 10.1016/0006-3223(90)90500-2

Thirty-two sets of monozygotic twins reared apart since shortly after birth (31 pairs and one set of triplets; median age at separation was 0.2 years) were interviewed separately and blindly using the Diagnostic Interview Schedule for presence of DSM-III Axis I psychiatric disorders and antisocial personality. Because the sample was recruited from a nonclinical population, predictably few subjects met criteria for such disorders. However, items counting toward diagnoses were cumulated into four scores: alcohol-related problems, drug-related problems, childhood antisocial behavior, and adult antisocial behavior. The scores showed within-scale cohesion as measured by Cronbach's coefficient α. The drug scale and both antisocial scales showed significant heritability ( p < 0.01), but the alcohol scale had an estimated heritability of zero (albeit with a broad confidence interval). There appeared to be substantial commonalities in the genetic factors responsible of these traits.