Abstract
Background. Frequency and quantity of alcohol consumption are metrics commonly used to measure alcohol consumption behaviors. Epidemiological studies indicate that these alcohol consumption measures are differentially associated with (mental) health outcomes and socioeconomic status (SES). The current study aims to elucidate to what extent genetic risk factors are shared between frequency and quantity of alcohol consumption, and how these alcohol consumption measures are genetically associated with four broad phenotypic categories: (i) SES; (ii) substance use disorders; (iii) other psychiatric disorders; and (iv) psychological/personality traits.Methods. Genome-Wide Association analyses were conducted to test genetic associations with alcohol consumption frequency (N = 438 308) and alcohol consumption quantity (N = 307 098 regular alcohol drinkers) within UK Biobank. For the other phenotypes, we used genome-wide association studies summary statistics. Genetic correlations (r g ) between the alcohol measures and other phenotypes were estimated using LD score regression.Results. We found a substantial genetic correlation between the frequency and quantity of alcohol consumption (r g = 0.52). Nevertheless, both measures consistently showed opposite genetic correlations with SES traits, and many substance use, psychiatric, and psychological/personality traits. High alcohol consumption frequency was genetically associated with high SES and low risk of substance use disorders and other psychiatric disorders, whereas the opposite applies for high alcohol consumption quantity.Conclusions. Although the frequency and quantity of alcohol consumption show substantial genetic overlap, they consistently show opposite patterns of genetic associations with SES-related phenotypes. Future studies should carefully consider the potential influence of SES on the shared genetic etiology between alcohol and adverse (mental) health outcomes.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 484-498 |
| Number of pages | 15 |
| Journal | Psychological Medicine |
| Volume | 50 |
| Issue number | 3 |
| Early online date | 1 Jan 2019 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - Feb 2020 |
Funding
This work is supported by a project grant (1123248) from the Australian National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC). ATM and EMD are supported by the Foundation Volksbond Rotterdam, FV is supported by the Investissement d’Avenir program managed by the ANR under reference ANR-11-IDEX-0004-02. JSO received scholarship support from the University of Queensland and QIMR Berghofer Medical Research Institute Conflict of interest. Dr Vorspan received over the last 5 years the following support/funding: Congress registration and travel: Lundbeck Pharmaceuticals (2015). European or French Ministry of Research competitive research grants: Labex BioPsy (ANR, Grant/Award Number: ANR‐11‐IDEX‐0004‐02; Investissement d’Avenir programme): 2013, 2014, 2016; ANR Samenta 2013; ERA-net Neuron 2013, 2017. Fondation pour la Recherche en Alcoologie (FRA), hébergée par la fondation de France: 2016, 2018. The other authors declare no conflict of interest with regard to this study. Resource (application number 25331). We thank Scott Wood and John Pearson from QIMR Berghofer for IT support. The Substance Use Disorders Working Group of the Psychiatric Genomics Consortium (PGC-SUD) is supported by funds from NIDA and NIMH to MH109532 and, previously, with analyst support from NIAAA to U01AA008401 (COGA). We gratefully acknowledge our contributing studies and the participants in those studies without whom this effort would not be possible. This work was conducted using the UK Biobank Resource (application number 25331). We thank Scott Wood and John Pearson from QIMR Berghofer for IT support. The Substance Use Disorders Working Group of the Psychiatric Genomics Consortium (PGC-SUD) is supported by funds from NIDA and NIMH to MH109532 and, previously, with analyst support from NIAAA to U01AA008401 (COGA). We gratefully acknowledge our contributing studies and the participants in those studies without whom this effort would not be possible. This work is supported by a project grant (1123248) from the Australian National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC). ATM and EMD are supported by the Foundation Volksbond Rotterdam, FV is supported by the Investissement d'Avenir program managed by the ANR under reference ANR-11-IDEX-0004-02. JSO received scholarship support from the University of Queensland and QIMR Berghofer Medical Research Institute
| Funders | Funder number |
|---|---|
| ANR-11-IDEX-0004-02 | |
| Australian National Health and Medical Research Council | |
| Foundation Volksbond Rotterdam | |
| National Institute of Mental Health | MH109532 |
| National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism | 1123248, U10AA008401 |
| QIMR Berghofer Medical Research Institute | |
| National Health and Medical Research Council | |
| Agence Nationale de la Recherche | |
| University of Queensland | |
| National Institute of Development Administration |
Keywords
- Alcohol consumption
- genetic correlation
- genetics
- socioeconomic status
- substance use
