summary: A comprehensive study of adolescent twins reveals a genetic link between eating disorders and alcohol use disorder (AUD). This correlation highlights that these symptoms lead to worse outcomes, including death, especially if they occur simultaneously in her teenager.
The study, conducted in the United States and Sweden, showed how these intertwined disorders affect men and women differently. This study highlights the importance of gender-specific treatment strategies.
Important facts:
- This study highlighted a clear phenotypic correlation between eating disorders and alcohol use across a range of conditions in women.
- Twin studies, a fundamental tool in this research, help distinguish between genetic and environmental influencers.
- Non-shared environmental influences contribute to individual disorders but have a small effect on concurrent appearance, especially for women.
sauce: Alcoholism Research Group
A large study of twins in late adolescence suggests that certain genetic influences contribute to eating disorders and problem drinking, with some people more vulnerable to both conditions.
Previous research has found that the combination of eating disorders and hazardous drinking in teenagers increases the likelihood of severe outcomes, including death. Studies across age groups point to common genetic influences between the two diseases, and changes in one disease can worsen symptoms in the other. There are also studies that suggest that.
Understanding the genetic and environmental factors involved in co-occurring eating disorders and alcohol use disorders (AUD) may improve treatment and outcomes.
Adolescence is a critical life stage for onset, and the major changes that characterize the late teens may increase susceptibility. However, little is known about the different manifestations and combinations of eating disorders and AUD in late adolescence, or potential gender differences.
For research published in Alcohol: Clinical and experimental studiesUS and Swedish researchers investigated genetic and environmental risks across different aspects and measures of eating disorders in 18-year-old twins.
Twin studies are an important tool for distinguishing between genetic and environmental influences. Researchers studied 3,568 female and 2,526 male same-sex twins in Sweden.
Participants completed a questionnaire assessing thinness, bulimia, body dissatisfaction, past year alcohol consumption (frequency and amount), and past year alcohol problems (signs of dependence and harmful use).
The researchers looked for three types of effects. One is evidence of multiple genes working together to influence related traits. Common environmental factors, such as socioeconomic status, make twins more similar in certain characteristics. Unshared environmental factors (such as childhood trauma or peer influence) can cause twins to become less similar in certain traits.
They used statistical analysis to quantify the genetic and environmental contributions to eating disorders associated with alcohol use.
Co-occurring eating disorders and alcohol involvement manifested differently in male and female twins. In women, phenotypic correlations between symptoms were evident across different symptoms of eating disorders and alcohol use. For men, the association was specific to problematic alcohol use.
Among young women (but not men), desire to lose weight, bulimia, and body dissatisfaction had mild to moderate genetic correlations with alcohol intake and problems.
Overall, non-shared environmental influences contributed separately to eating disorder and alcohol measures, but contributed minimally to the co-occurrence of the two symptoms in women. Some of the study’s findings contrast with a previous study of a 16-year-old and her 17-year-old twins and likely reflect differences in alcohol use related to Sweden’s legal drinking age. (18).
This study points to the importance of gender-specific treatment strategies for late adolescents with co-occurring eating disorders and problematic alcohol use. Additionally, the findings may help identify vulnerable teens.
Late adolescents with symptoms of eating disorders or problematic alcohol use may be screened for other symptoms, potentially improving detection and treatment. Assessing family history of multiple eating disorder symptoms also has value in screening and treatment.
This study did not identify specific genetic or environmental factors that influence co-occurring symptoms. Potential differences between countries, regions, and diverse populations require further research.
About this genetics and mental health research news
author: press office
sauce: Alcoholism Research Group
contact: Press Office – Alcoholism Research Group
image: Image credited to Neuroscience News
Original research: Closed access.
“Differential genetic associations between eating disorder dimensions and alcohol involvement in late adolescent twins” by Baiyu Qi et al. Alcohol: Clinical and experimental studies
abstract
Differential genetic associations between eating disorder dimensions and alcohol involvement in late adolescent twins
background
Twin studies have demonstrated common genetic and environmental influences between eating disorders and alcohol involvement in adults and middle adolescents. However, few studies have focused on late adolescents or have extensively examined aspects of eating disorders and subscales of alcohol involvement in both men and women. We used a bivariate twin model to examine genetic and environmental correlations between her three dimensions of eating disorders and her two alcohol involvement subscale scores in a late adolescent twin. I did.
method
Participants were 3568 female and 2526 male same-sex twins aged 18 years who participated in the Swedish Child and Adolescent Twin Study. The Eating Disorder Inventory-2 (EDI) assessed motivations for thinness, bulimia, and body dissatisfaction. Alcohol involvement was assessed with the Consumption (AUDIT-C) and Problems (AUDIT-P) subscales of the Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test.
result
Only phenotype-twin correlations in the female twin met the twin modeling threshold. The proportion of total variance in each trait explained by additive genetic factors ranges from 0.50 to 0.64 for female twins, with the remainder explained by unshared environmental factors and measurement error. Common environmental factors played a minimal role in the variance of each trait. The strongest genetic correlation (rbe) EDI Bulimia and AUDIT-P (rbe= 0.46, 95% confidence interval: 0.37, 0.55), indicating that the proportion of genetic variance for a trait shared with other traits is 0.21. Nonshared environmental correlations between eating disorder dimensions and alcohol involvement ranged from 0.03 to 0.13.
conclusion
We observed distinct patterns of genetic and environmental influences on aspects of comorbid eating disorders and alcohol involvement in female and male twins, and found that in late adolescents with comorbid eating disorders and alcohol use disorders. Supported gender-specific treatment strategies for young people. Our findings highlight the importance of assessing family history across aspects of eating disorders when treating late adolescents with problematic alcohol use to improve detection and treatment. It emphasizes the importance of gender and vice versa.