Genetic risks of addictive disorders in adolescents: phenotypic effects

Abstract

In several unrelated small samples examined correlation between genetic risk of chemical dependence, calculated on the basis of the contribution of geomarkers dopamine system, and phenotype of adolescents 14-17 years of age, not suffering from addiction. When genetic risk increases, the tendency to behavioural disorders increases, the tendency to abandon positive forms of self-assertion increases, the intensity of euphoria increases at the first drug samples, and the ability to predict the consequences of drug use decreases. The obtained correlations may be important for understanding the mechanism of dependence formation in adolescents with high genetic risk and development of individual prevention programs. However, these observations need to be confirmed in more representative studies.

Keywords

• dopamine, genetic risk, phenotype, alcohol, drug