The heritability of alcohol use disorders: a meta-analysis of twin and adoption studies

To clarify the role of genetic and environmental risk factors in alcohol use disorders (AUDs), we performed a meta-analysis of twin and adoption studies and explored the impact of sex, assessment method (interview v. hospital/population records), and study design (twin v. adoption study) on heritabi...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Psychological medicine 2015-04, Vol.45 (5), p.1061-1072
Main Authors: Verhulst, B., Neale, M. C., Kendler, K. S.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adoption
Alcohol use
Alcohol-Related Disorders - genetics
Alcoholism - genetics
Environment
Female
Genetic Predisposition to Disease
Genetics
Humans
Male
Meta-analysis
Original Articles
Risk factors
Sex Factors
Social Environment
Systematic review
Twins
Twins, Dizygotic - genetics
Twins, Monozygotic - genetics
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Summary:To clarify the role of genetic and environmental risk factors in alcohol use disorders (AUDs), we performed a meta-analysis of twin and adoption studies and explored the impact of sex, assessment method (interview v. hospital/population records), and study design (twin v. adoption study) on heritability estimates. The literature was searched for all unique twin and adoption studies of AUD and identified 12 twin and five adoption studies. The data were then reconstructed and analyzed using ordinal data full information maximum likelihood in the OpenMx program. Heterogeneity was tested with likelihood ratio tests by equating the parameters across studies. There was no evidence for heterogeneity by study design, sex or assessment method. The best-fit estimate of the heritability of AUD was 0.49 [95% confidence interval (CI) 0.43-0.53], and the proportion of shared environmental variance was 0.10 (95% CI 0.03-0.16). Estimates of unique environmental proportions of variance differed significantly across studies. AUD is approximately 50% heritable. The multiple genetically informative studies of this syndrome have produced consistent results that support the validity of this heritability estimate, especially given the different potential methodological weaknesses of twin and adoption designs, and of assessments of AUD based on personal interviews v. official records. We also found evidence for modest shared environmental effects suggesting that environmental factors also contribute to the familial aggregation of AUDs.
ISSN:0033-2917
1469-8978
DOI:10.1017/S0033291714002165