The overall objective of the proposed research is to enhance understanding of the relationship between riskand protective factors for binge drinking and alcohol use disorders in Mexican American young adults. Thisproject will be an extension of our previous pilot investigations in this population. Hispanics are the secondlargest ethnic minority group in the U.S. and the largest in the city of San Diego, yet biopsychosocialvulnerability factors for alcohol problems in this population remain relatively unexplored. We now havepreliminary data that suggests a distinct cluster of risk factors may be associated with binge drinking andalcohol use disorders in Mexican American young adults. These associated factors include: age of onset ofdrinking, the presence of low voltage EEC variants, electrophysiological and behavioral measures of prepulseinhibition of the startle response, co-morbidity with other psychiatric disorders, measures of stress andacculturation, and distributions of alcohol metabolizing enzymes unique to this population. We propose toincrease the participant population in order to have enough power to fully evaluate our findings. Additionally,we will be using our data to translate the findings to the development of valid animal models. In addition wewill be testing, in humans, the overall theoretical construct of the grant related to stress, the development ofbinge drinking, and alcohol dependence in this population of Mexican Americans. This study has thepotential to provide critical information for understanding how select genetic and environmental factors mightinteract in the development of alcohol use disorders among Mexican American men and women living in SanDiego County. Ultimately, a better understanding of the factors associated with alcohol associated behaviorsin Mexican Americans will contribute important information for understanding the causes of alcohol abuseand dependence and might ultimately aid in the development of efficacious and culturally sensitiveprevention and intervention programs.
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