Journal Article

Positive associations between cannabis and alcohol use polygenic risk scores and phenotypic opioid misuse among African-Americans

Benke, Kelly, Reboussin, Beth A., Uhl, George, Rentería, Miguel E., Thrul, Johannes, Domingue, Benjamin, Kertes, Darlene, Maher, Brion S., Troiani, Vanessa, Ialongo, Nicholas S., Rabinowitz, Jill A., Huhn, Andrew S., Jin, Jin, Kuo, Sally I-Chun, Campos, Adrian I.

2022

Overview

This study examined whether polygenic risk scores (PRS) for lifetime cannabis and alcohol use were associated with misusing opioids, and whether sex differences existed in these relations in an urban, African-American sample. Data were drawn from three cohorts of participants (N = 1,103; 45% male) who were recruited in first grade as part of a series of elementary school-based, universal preventive intervention trials conducted in a Mid-Atlantic region of the U.S. In young adulthood, participants provided a DNA sample and reported on whether they had used heroin or misused prescription opioids in their lifetime. Three substance use PRS were computed based on prior GWAS: lifetime cannabis use from Pasman et al. (2018), heavy drinking indexed via maximum number of drinks from Gelernter et al. (2019), and alcohol consumption from Kranzler et al. (2019). Higher PRS for lifetime cannabis use, greater heavy drinking, and greater alcohol consumption were associated with heightened risk for misusing opioids among the whole sample. Significant sex by PRS interactions were also observed such that higher PRS for heavy drinking and alcohol consumption were associated with a greater likelihood of opioid misuse among males, but not females. Our findings further elucidate the genetic contributions to misusing opioids by showing that the genetics of cannabis and alcohol consumption are associated with lifetime opioid misuse among young adults, though replication of our findings is needed.

• Publisher: Public Library of Science,Public Library of Science (PLoS)
• Subject: Adult / African Americans / Alcohol Drinking - genetics / Alcohol use / Alcoholic beverages / Alcohols / Analgesics, Opioid - therapeutic use / Behavior / Biology and Life Sciences / Black or African American - genetics / Cannabis / Demographic aspects / Deoxyribonucleic acid / DNA / Drinking / Drinking behavior / Drinking of alcoholic beverages / Drug use / Emergency medical care / Female / Gender aspects / Gender differences / Genetic aspects / Genetics / Genomes / Hallucinogens / Health aspects / Health risks / Heroin / Humans / Hypotheses / Influence / Intervention / Liability / Male / Marijuana / Medical research / Medicine and Health Sciences / Mental health / Narcotics / Opioid-Related Disorders - drug therapy / Opioids / People and places / Prescription Drug Misuse / Public health / Risk / Risk Factors / Sex differences / Substance use / Young Adult / Young adults