From alcohol initiation to tolerance to problems: Discordant twin modeling of a developmental process

Dev Psychopathol. 2017 Aug;29(3):845-861. doi: 10.1017/S0954579416000523. Epub 2016 Jul 15.

Abstract

The current study examined a stage-based alcohol use trajectory model to test for potential causal effects of earlier drinking milestones on later drinking milestones in a combined sample of two cohorts of Australian monozygotic and same-sex dizygotic twins (N = 7,398, age M = 30.46, SD = 2.61, 61% male, 56% monozygotic twins). Ages of drinking, drunkenness, regular drinking, tolerance, first nontolerance alcohol use disorder symptom, and alcohol use disorder symptom onsets were assessed retrospectively. Ages of milestone attainment (i.e., age-of-onset) and time between milestones (i.e., time-to-event) were examined via frailty models within a multilevel discordant twin design. For age-of-onset models, earlier ages of onset of antecedent drinking milestones increased hazards for earlier ages of onset for more proximal subsequent drinking milestones. For the time-to-event models, however, earlier ages of onset for the "starting" milestone decreased risk for a shorter time period between the starting and the "ending" milestone. Earlier age of onset of intermediate milestones between starting and ending drinking milestones had the opposite effect, increasing risk for a shorter time period between the starting and ending milestones. These results are consistent with a causal effect of an earlier age of drinking milestone onset on temporally proximal subsequent drinking milestones.

Publication types

  • Twin Study

MeSH terms

  • Adolescent
  • Adult
  • Age of Onset
  • Alcohol Drinking / genetics*
  • Alcoholic Intoxication / genetics*
  • Alcoholism / genetics*
  • Australia
  • Disease Progression
  • Female
  • Humans
  • Male
  • Retrospective Studies
  • Twins, Dizygotic*
  • Twins, Monozygotic*
  • Young Adult