Minnesota Center for Twin and Family Research (MCTFR) Genome-Wide Association Study of Behavioral Disinhibition

This is an epidemiological study of substance abuse and related psychopathology in which the subjects have been drawn from the Minnesota Center for Twin and Family Research (MCTFR). The MCTFR is a large, ongoing, family-based study. It is in part a longitudinal study of two cohorts of adolescent twins and their parents. It additionally includes a parallel longitudinal study of adolescent adoptive siblings, biologically related siblings, and their parents. Over 1500 twin families and 350 adoptive and biological sibling families have been studied, with follow-up assessments occurring approximately every 3 years. The MCTFR gathered detailed, standardized data on study participants including DSM-IIIR and DSM-IV diagnostic interview and questionnaire data. For the Genome-Wide Association Study of Behavioral Disinhibition, parental intake data plus that adolescent data gathered closest to the children 17th birthday (between ages 16.5 and 21) was used.

• Study Weblinks:
  • MCTFR Minnesota Center for Twin and Family Research
• Study Design:
  • Prospective Longitudinal Cohort
• Study Type:
  • Longitudinal
  • Family
  • Twin
• dbGaP estimated ancestry using GRAF-pop
• Total number of consented subjects: 6784
• Subject Sample Telemetry Report (SSTR)

• BioProject
• PubMed
• Sequence Read Archive
• BioSample
• MeSH
• PMC

The MCTFR twin-family sample was ascertained through Minnesota birth records. The adoptive-family sample was ascertained from infant placements made by the three largest private adoption agencies in Minnesota. The non-adoptive controls were ascertained through Minnesota state birth records and selected to have a pair of siblings of comparable age and gender to the adoptive sibling pairs. Eligibility requirements for the adoptive families included having, at the time of the intake assessment, an adopted adolescent between the ages of 11 and 21 who had been placed permanently in the adoptive home prior to the age of 2 years and a second adolescent in the home who was not biologically related to the adopted adolescent and who was no more than 5 years different in age. The second child could be biologically related to one or both of the parents or could, like the first child, have been adopted and placed prior to the age of 2 years. Additional eligibility requirements, which applied to all subjects, included living within a day drive of the University of Minnesota laboratory and not having any physical or mental disability that would preclude completing the day-long, in-person intake assessment. To be included in this analysis, the subject must additionally have been willing to make a blood or saliva donation.

The MCTFR first subjects were assessed in 1990, when the study was called the Minnesota Twin Family Study (MTFS). The initial cohort consisted of twins approximately age 17 who had been born in Minnesota between 1972 and 1979. The second cohort consisted of twins approximately age 11 who had been born in Minnesota between 1977 and 1984. Later, more age-11 twins were added from the 1988-1994 birth years. The adoptive-family sample, with its non-adoptive-family control sample, was named the Sibling Interaction and Behavior Study (SIBS). SIBS included children born between 1978 and 1988 and who first visited at an average age of 15. With the addition of this SIBS sample, the MTFS was renamed the MCTFR. Subjects returned approximately every 3 years such that a significant subsample of the Genome-Wide Association Study of Behavioral Disinhibition consists of the age-11 cohort at their third assessment. The majority of blood and saliva samples were collected between 2007-2011.

• Primary Phenotype: Substance-Related Disorders
• Impulse Control Disorders

• Co-Principal Investigator
  • William G. Iacono, PhD. University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, USA.
  • Matthew K. McGue, PhD.
• Co-Investigator
  • Irene J. Elkins. University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, USA.
  • Margaret A. Keyes. University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, USA.
  • Lisa N. Legrand. University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, USA.
  • Stephen M. Malone. University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, USA.
  • William S. Oetting. University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, USA.
  • Michael B. Miller. University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, USA.
  • Saonli Basu. University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, USA.
• Funding Source
  • R01 DA024417-05. National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD, USA.