Starting to drink alcohol early increases the risk of addiction

The moment when a person first starts drinking alcohol can affect genes related to alcoholism, making it easier for young people to drink alcohol to face serious problems in the future.

The team is led by scientists from Washington University College of Pharmacy in St. Louis. Louis conducted a survey on 6,257 Australian twins. They want to find out if in people who start drinking early, genetic factors have a greater effect on alcoholism than those who start drinking late. Researchers have found that the more people start drinking alcohol early, the greater the risk of alcohol dependence and the more prominent the role of genetic factors.

'In people who drink alcohol at an early age, it seems that genetic effects are greater,' said Dr. Arpana Agrawal, lead author of the study. 'This seems to be consistent with what people have predicted in literature and in the classification of alcoholism.'

Agrawal and his colleagues examined previously collected data from different and identical twins, men and women, using statistical methods to check whether the first drinking age changed the role of How genetic effects affect alcohol dependence.

Agrawal's team found that in twins who start drinking alcohol early, genetic factors greatly affect the risk of alcohol dependence, with the highest rate reaching 90%. For people who start drinking later, genes affect much less, and environmental factors - which make the difference in every twins, such as unique events in life - are predominant factor.

Starting to drink alcohol early increases the risk of addiction. (Photo: EnglishRussia)

The surveyed twins are aged 24 to 36, some of whom said they started drinking at 5 or 6 years old. The team found that those who started drinking at age 15 or younger were at risk for alcohol dependence because of more genetic factors. There are also a number of respondents who are alcoholics even though they start drinking after 16 years of age, but addiction is more related to environmental factors.

Dr Agrawal said: 'We do not have actual data on gene expression in this study, but we do think that early exposure to alcohol alters the development of the brain in some way. In particular, drinking alcohol regularly or drinking a lot from an early age can affect gene expression and contribute to more serious harm. Our research has not been able to draw conclusions, but this is what brain and gene expression studies should consider. '

Another possibility is that early drinking makes teens exposed to certain social environmental influences, such as peer groups, and this factor also contributes to genetic factors that increase More risk of alcoholism.

'There must be something that makes people who start drinking alcohol sooner or later face a higher risk of drinking alcohol than usual,' Agrawal said. 'We continue to explore related mechanisms, but certainly, encourage people who do not start drinking at an early age to benefit them.'

'Some people who start drinking early do not suffer from alcohol-related problems, while some people who start drinking late get caught - we are investigating the cause of these cases, but it is very It should be noted that this is only one risk factor among many factors, and it cannot completely decide whether a person is addicted to alcohol, ' Agrawal said. 'However, the age to start drinking alcohol is a very common risk factor.'

Agrawal said the twins survey has many advantages when learning about the environmental and genetic effects of alcoholism.Because identical twins have 100% of the same DNA, the differences in their drinking behavior must be due to environmental factors. Similarities between two identical twins are often created by genes and home environments.

'In particular, identical twins give us the opportunity to look into perfect individuals with identical genomes in which the differences in drinking behavior are created by personal experiences in life. live create, ' she explained. 'They are very valuable investigators in complex behavioral studies, such as drinking alcohol.'

The results of the study will be published in detail in Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research, a magazine dedicated to alcoholism, the December issue. However, you can see the highlights right now on this newspaper's Early View online site.

Refer:

Agrawal A, Sartor CE, Lynskey MT, Grant JD, Pergadia ML, Grucza R, Bucholz KK, Nelson EC, Madden PAF, Martin NG, Heath AC.Đang xác định cho sự Interact between thời gian ở First bộ cần thiết và genetic influences trên DSM-IV alcohol dependence symptoms.Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research, the Early View online publication.Sept.18, 2009 DOI: 10.1111 / j.1530-0277.2009.01044.x