This is a study of the role of genetic and social factors, and their covariation and interaction, in the development and natural history of patterns of alcohol use, and of alcohol abuse and dependence, with a particular focus on alcohol problems and use in women. During the first five years of the project, self-report questionnaire data on alcohol use, alcohol problems and associated behavioral risk factors have been obtained from some 5260 Australian twin pairs (including 2650 female like-sex twin pairs and 1200 opposite-sex pairs, and including 3250 pairs on whom baseline data are available from 1981 ['1981 cohort'] and 11,000 adult relatives of these twins (parents, spouses, siblings and adult children). Telephone screening interviews have been conducted with some 5900 twins from the 1981 cohort, with follow-up interviews being conducted during the current grant cycle with high-risk pairs where at least one twin screens positive for alcohol dependence. We now seek funding for: (i) a telephone survey of the spouses of the 1981 cohort twins (target: 3550 spouses), with follow-up telephone interviews of twins from concordant non-alcoholic pairs where at least one spouse screens positive for alcohol dependence (to resolve the contributions to alcoholism risk of assortative mating, reciprocal spousal environmental influence and moderator - e.g. protective - influences of spousal behaviors and absence of spousal psychopathology); (ii) continuing genetic epidemiologic analyses of the psychiatric interview data from the 1981 cohort, to determine the genetic relationship between alcohol dependence, comorbid psychiatric disorders, and (a) alcohol challenge variables measured on a subsample in 1979-1980, (b) the questionnaire variables measured on the 1981 cohort twins and their relatives in 1980-81 and 1989-92; (iii) development and piloting of an assessment protocol to be used in a supplemental application to study the adolescent and young adult offspring of alcoholic twins and of their cotwins ('high-risk twin family design'). These data will further clarify the interactive effects of genotype and social environment on alcoholism risk (particularly in women); and will provide a foundation for a high- risk study of precursors of alcoholism in the offspring generation.
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