Publications

Alcohol use typically begins during adolescence and escalates into young adulthood. This represents an important period for the establishment of alcohol use and misuse patterns, which can have psychosocial and medical consequences.

Biometrical genetic studies suggest that the personality dimensions, including neuroticism, are moderately heritable (~0.4 to 0.6). Quantitative analyses that aggregate the effects of many common variants have recently further informed genetic research on European samples.

Genome-wide association study meta-analyses have robustly implicated three loci that affect susceptibility for smoking: CHRNA5\CHRNA3\CHRNB4, CHRNB3\CHRNA6 and EGLN2\CYP2A6.

Extraversion is a relatively stable and heritable personality trait associated with numerous psychosocial, lifestyle and health outcomes.

This study explored the factor structure of DSM III-R/IV symptoms for substance abuse and dependence across six illicit substance categories in a population-based sample of males.