Latent Profiles of Drinking Motives Among Trauma-Exposed Combat Veterans and Civilians: A Comparative Investigation.

Trauma exposure and drinking motives (e.g., social, enhancement, coping) are both associated with increased alcohol use and related problems.

The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on alcohol use disorder symptoms: Testing interactions with polygenic risk.

The purpose of this study was to test whether COVID impact interacts with genetic risk (polygenic risk score/PRS) to predict alcohol use disorder (AUD) symptoms. Participants were  = 455 college students (79.6% female, 51% European Ancestry/EA, 24% African Ancestry/AFR, 25% Americas Ancestry/AMER) from a longitudinal study during the initial stage (March-May 2020) of the pandemic.

Parental Divorce and Trajectories of Alcohol Consumption in Men: A Genetically Informative Perspective.

Objective: Much of what is known about parental divorce and adult alcohol outcomes comes from cross-sectional comparisons of those who did and did not experience parental divorce. In contrast, far less is known about whether and how parental divorce is associated with alcohol consumption trajectories. We used a longitudinal perspective to investigate the associations between parental divorce and men's alcohol consumption trajectories as well as a genetically informative approach to evaluate whether the pattern of genetic and environmental influences on these trajectories differed for men who did and did not experience parental divorce.

A population-based twin study of the symptomatic diagnostic criteria for major depression that occur within versus outside of major depressive episodes.

Background: Are genetic risk factors for current depressive symptoms good proxies for genetic risk factors for syndromal major depression (MD)?

Methods: In over 9000 twins from the population-based Virginia Adult Twin Study of Psychiatric and Substance Use Disorders, the occurrence of all nine DSM symptomatic criteria for MD in the last year was assessed at personal interview and then grouped by their temporal co-occurrence. The DSM criteria which occurred outside (OUT) inside of (IN) MD episodes were then separated. We calculated tetrachoric correlations for OUT and IN depressive criteria in monozygotic (MZ) and dizygotic (DZ) pairs and fitted univariate and bivariate ACE twin models using OpenMx.

Quantifying skip-out information loss when assessing major depression symptoms.

Large-scale mental health surveys screen participants for the presence of the core diagnostic criteria of a mental disorder such as major depressive disorder (MDD). Only participants who screen positive are administered the full diagnostic module; the remainder "skip-out." Although this procedure adheres faithfully to the psychiatric classification of mental disorders, it limits the use of the resulting survey data for conducting high-quality research of importance to scientists, clinicians, and policymakers.

The structure of the symptoms of major depression: Factor analysis of a lifetime worst episode of depressive symptoms in a large general population sample.

Background: A range of depressive symptoms may occur during an episode of major depression (MD). Do these symptoms describe a single disorder liability or different symptom dimensions? This study investigates the structure and clinical relevance of an expanded set of depressive symptoms in a large general population sample.

Methods: We studied 43,431 subjects from the Dutch Lifelines Cohort Study who participated in an online survey assessing the 9 symptom criteria of MD (DSM-IV-TR) and additional depressive symptoms during their worst lifetime episode of depressive symptoms lasting two weeks or more.

Patterns and Correlates of Polysubstance Use Among Individuals With Severe Alcohol Use Disorder.

Aim: The present study examined patterns and correlates of polysubstance use among individuals with severe alcohol use disorder (AUD).

Methods: Participants were 2785 individuals (63% female; mean age = 43 years, range = 18-78 years) from the Genes, Addiction and Personality Study. All participants met lifetime criteria for severe AUD (6+ symptoms).

Role of parental divorce and discord in the intergenerational transmission of alcohol use disorder.

Background: Alcohol use disorder (AUD) has a strong familial component, and is associated with divorce and relationship discord. The purpose of this study was to test whether exposure to parental divorce and parental relationship discord contributes to the intergenerational transmission of AUD.

Methods: The sample included N = 9005 adult twins (43% female) from the Virginia Adult Twin Study of Psychiatric and Substance Use Disorders.

The COVID-19 pandemic impacts psychiatric outcomes and alcohol use among college students.

Background: The COVID-19 pandemic has imposed fundamental challenges on nearly every area of life.

Objective: The purpose of the current study was to expand on the literature on the impact of the pandemic on college students by a) examining domains of impact of the pandemic on psychiatric and alcohol outcomes and b) controlling for pre-pandemic outcomes.

Method: Participants included 897 college students (78.

Intermediate stable states in substance use.

Many people across the world use potentially addictive legal and illegal substances, but evidence suggests that not all use leads to heavy use and dependence, as some substances are used moderately for long periods of time. Here, we empirically examine, the stability of and transitions between three substance use states: zero-use, moderate use, and heavy use. We investigate two large datasets from the US and the Netherlands on yearly usage and change of alcohol, nicotine, and cannabis.

Modeling the association between and predictors of two constructs of resilience.

Purpose: Resilience serves as a protective factor against adverse outcomes following exposure to traumatic events. The extant literature focuses on psychiatric resilience in the context of internalizing symptoms, though resilience is also important in relation to externalizing symptoms. Research is needed to clarify the predictors of resilience across contexts.

Is Delinquency Associated With Subsequent Victimization by Community Violence in Adolescents? A Test of the Risky Behavior Model in a Primarily African American Sample.

Objective: Victimization is common in adolescence and is associated with negative outcomes, including school failure, and poor emotional, behavioral, and physical health. A deeper understanding of the risk of victimization can inform prevention and intervention efforts. This study tests the risky behavior model in adolescents, examining prospective associations between mean levels of and changes in delinquency and risk for victimization over four annual data collections.

Unpacking the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic: identifying structural domains.

: The novel coronavirus-19 (COVID-19) pandemic is a collective crisis that imposed an abrupt and unprecedented impact on college students, as universities were closed with little warning. Paired with the challenges associated with physical distancing (e.g.

Longitudinal Examination of the Impact of Resilience and Stressful Life Events on Alcohol Use Disorder Outcomes.

Stressful life events (SLEs) are a risk factor for alcohol use problems, and there is a need for identification of factors that may offset this risk. Resilience is uniquely, inversely associated with alcohol use, but there remains a dearth of research examining the buffering effect of resilience toward alcohol use problems in the context of SLEs. This study used prospective data from an epidemiological twin sample (=7441) to test whether resilience at Time 1 would act as a buffer for new onset SLEs (e.

Psychiatric Resilience and Alcohol Resistance: A Twin Study of Genetic Correlation and Sex Differences.

Variability in psychiatric response following stressful/traumatic life events is frequently observed. There is also variability in propensity for alcohol use disorder (AUD) such that some can consume substantial amounts and not develop AUD symptoms whereas others develop an AUD. Our group has applied discrepancy-based approaches to capture psychiatric resilience (PR) and alcohol resistance (AR), both moderately heritable.

A topography of 21 phobic fears: network analysis in an epidemiological sample of adult twins.

Background: Few factor analyses and no network analyses have examined the structure of DSM phobic fears or tested the specificity of the relationship between panic disorder and agoraphobic fears.

Methods: Histories of 21 lifetime phobic fears, coded as four-level ordinal variables (no fear to fear with major interference) were assessed at personal interview in 7514 adults from the Virginia Twin Registry. We estimated Gaussian Graphical Models on individual phobic fears; compared network structures of women and men using the Network Comparison Test; used community detection to determine the number and nature of groups in which phobic fears hang together; and validated the anticipated specific relationship between panic disorder and agoraphobia.

Data mining algorithm predicts a range of adverse outcomes in major depression.

Background: Course of illness in major depression (MD) is highly varied, which might lead to both under- and overtreatment if clinicians adhere to a 'one-size-fits-all' approach. Novel opportunities in data mining could lead to prediction models that can assist clinicians in treatment decisions tailored to the individual patient. This study assesses the performance of a previously developed data mining algorithm to predict future episodes of MD based on clinical information in new data.

Specific antisocial and borderline personality disorder criteria and general substance use: A twin study.

Antisocial (ASPD) and borderline (BPD) personality disorders (PDs) are associated with increased risk for substance use. They are "specific" risk factors among PDs in that they withstand adjusting for the other PDs, whereas the reverse does not hold. Specificity is a classic sign of causation.

Examination of a novel measure of trauma-related drinking to cope.

Objectives: The present study sought to fill a gap in the current literature by developing a concise self-report questionnaire assessing drinking motives specific to coping with symptoms of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). This new four-item questionnaire is called the Trauma Related Drinking questionnaire (TRD).

Method: Using structural equation modeling, the latent structure of the TRD items and how they relate to other variables of interest were explored among a sample of 1,896 college undergraduates from a large public university.

A Twin Study of Cigarette and Snus Initiation and Quantity of Use in Norwegian Adult Twins.

While snus has been the focus of increasing public health interest, twin studies have examined neither sources of individual variation for its use nor the sources of resemblance between snus and cigarette use. Twins from the Norwegian Institute of Public Health Panel were assessed by self-report questionnaire for the initiation of regular use and maximal quantity used for snus and cigarettes. Twin modeling was performed using OpenMx on data from 2767 twins including 856 complete pairs.

Heritability, stability, and prevalence of tonic and phasic irritability as indicators of disruptive mood dysregulation disorder.

Background: Little is known about genetic and environmental influences on the components of disruptive mood dysregulation disorder (DMDD), tonic irritability (i.e., irritable mood) and phasic irritability (i.

The structure of genetic and environmental influences on normative personality, abnormal personality traits, and personality disorder symptoms.

Background: Can the structure of genetic and environmental influences on normative personality traits (NPTs), abnormal personality traits (APTs), and DSM-IV criteria for personality disorders (PD) fit a high or low congruence model positing, respectively, close or more limited etiologic continuity?

Method: Exploratory factor analysis was applied to transformed correlation matrices from Cholesky twin decompositions obtained in OpenMx. In 2801 adult twins from the Norwegian Institute of Public Health Twin Panel, NPTs and APTs were assessed by self-report using the Big Five Inventory (BFI) and PID-5-Norwegian Brief Form (PID-5-NBF), respectively. PDs were assessed at interview using the Structured Interview for DSM-IV Personality (SIDP-IV).

Shared and specific genetic risk factors for lifetime major depression, depressive symptoms and neuroticism in three population-based twin samples.

Background: Vulnerability to depression can be measured in different ways. We here examine how genetic risk factors are inter-related for lifetime major depression (MD), self-report current depressive symptoms and the personality trait Neuroticism.

Method: We obtained data from three population-based adult twin samples (Virginia n = 4672, Australia #1 n = 3598 and Australia #2 n = 1878) to which we fitted a common factor model where risk for 'broadly defined depression' was indexed by (i) lifetime MD assessed at personal interview, (ii) depressive symptoms, and (iii) neuroticism.