Drug addiction is a critical public health issue with genetic and environmental causes. Worldwide, 246 million adults used an illicit drug in 2013, and > 10% of these users met DSM-IV criteria for substance abuse. Stress is a key environmental variable driving the development of addiction, and this effect is under strong genetic control. Despite tremendous
Drug addiction is a critical public health problem which is driven by genetic and environmental factors. Gene x stress interactions on addiction liability reveal that certain individuals are genetically susceptible, whereas others are genetically resistant, to addiction disorders following exposure to chronic environmental stress. This project will use advanced mouse resources to identify and characterize the genes and mechanisms in brain reward pathways driving the enhancing effect of environmental stress in addiction liability; these findings may lead to novel treatments for drug addiction.
| Dickson, Price E; Roy, Tyler A; McNaughton, Kathryn A et al. (2018) Systems genetics of sensation seeking. Genes Brain Behav :e12519 |
