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Maternal half-sibling families with discordant fathers : A contrastive design assessing cross-generational paternal genetic transmission of alcohol use disorder, drug abuse and major depression

Kendler, Kenneth S. LU ; Ohlsson, Henrik LU ; Sundquist, Jan LU and Sundquist, Kristina LU (2020) In Psychological Medicine 50(6). p.973-980
Abstract

BackgroundWe introduce and apply an elegant, contrastive genetic-epidemiological design - Maternal Half-Sibling Families with Discordant Fathers - to clarify cross-generational transmission of genetic risk to alcohol use disorder (AUD), drug abuse (DA) and major depression (MD).MethodUsing Swedish national registries, we identified 73 108 eligible pairs of reared together maternal half-siblings and selected those whose biological fathers were discordant for AUD, DA and MD, and had minimal contact with the affected father. We examined differences in outcome in half-siblings with an affected v. unaffected father.ResultsFor AUD, DA and MD, the HR (95% confidence intervals) for the offspring of affected v. unaffected fathers were,... (More)

BackgroundWe introduce and apply an elegant, contrastive genetic-epidemiological design - Maternal Half-Sibling Families with Discordant Fathers - to clarify cross-generational transmission of genetic risk to alcohol use disorder (AUD), drug abuse (DA) and major depression (MD).MethodUsing Swedish national registries, we identified 73 108 eligible pairs of reared together maternal half-siblings and selected those whose biological fathers were discordant for AUD, DA and MD, and had minimal contact with the affected father. We examined differences in outcome in half-siblings with an affected v. unaffected father.ResultsFor AUD, DA and MD, the HR (95% confidence intervals) for the offspring of affected v. unaffected fathers were, respectively, 1.72 (1.61; 1.84), 1.55 (1.41; 1.70) and 1.51 (1.40; 1.64). Paternal DA and AUD, but not MD, predicted risk in offspring for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, conduct disorder, and poor educational performance and attainment. Offspring of affected v. unaffected fathers had poorer pregnancy outcomes, with the effect strongest for DA and weakest for MD. A range of potential biases and confounders were examined and were not found to alter these findings substantially.ConclusionReared together maternal half-siblings differ in their paternal genetic endowment, sharing the same mother, family, school and community. They can help clarify the nature of paternal genetic effects and produce results consistent with other designs. Paternal genetic risk for DA and AUD have effects on offspring educational achievement, child and adult psychopathology, and possibly prenatal development. The impact of paternal genetic risk for MD is narrower in scope.

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author
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organization
publishing date
type
Contribution to journal
publication status
published
subject
keywords
Alcohol use disorder, Depression, drug abuse, genetic epidemiology
in
Psychological Medicine
volume
50
issue
6
pages
8 pages
publisher
Cambridge University Press
external identifiers
  • pmid:30992087
  • scopus:85065253711
ISSN
0033-2917
DOI
10.1017/S0033291719000874
language
English
LU publication?
yes
id
32bc5180-1ab1-4222-b3c9-23272b7b82e9
date added to LUP
2019-05-24 13:04:11
date last changed
2024-03-19 09:44:12
@article{32bc5180-1ab1-4222-b3c9-23272b7b82e9,
  abstract     = {{<p>BackgroundWe introduce and apply an elegant, contrastive genetic-epidemiological design - Maternal Half-Sibling Families with Discordant Fathers - to clarify cross-generational transmission of genetic risk to alcohol use disorder (AUD), drug abuse (DA) and major depression (MD).MethodUsing Swedish national registries, we identified 73 108 eligible pairs of reared together maternal half-siblings and selected those whose biological fathers were discordant for AUD, DA and MD, and had minimal contact with the affected father. We examined differences in outcome in half-siblings with an affected v. unaffected father.ResultsFor AUD, DA and MD, the HR (95% confidence intervals) for the offspring of affected v. unaffected fathers were, respectively, 1.72 (1.61; 1.84), 1.55 (1.41; 1.70) and 1.51 (1.40; 1.64). Paternal DA and AUD, but not MD, predicted risk in offspring for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, conduct disorder, and poor educational performance and attainment. Offspring of affected v. unaffected fathers had poorer pregnancy outcomes, with the effect strongest for DA and weakest for MD. A range of potential biases and confounders were examined and were not found to alter these findings substantially.ConclusionReared together maternal half-siblings differ in their paternal genetic endowment, sharing the same mother, family, school and community. They can help clarify the nature of paternal genetic effects and produce results consistent with other designs. Paternal genetic risk for DA and AUD have effects on offspring educational achievement, child and adult psychopathology, and possibly prenatal development. The impact of paternal genetic risk for MD is narrower in scope.</p>}},
  author       = {{Kendler, Kenneth S. and Ohlsson, Henrik and Sundquist, Jan and Sundquist, Kristina}},
  issn         = {{0033-2917}},
  keywords     = {{Alcohol use disorder; Depression; drug abuse; genetic epidemiology}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  number       = {{6}},
  pages        = {{973--980}},
  publisher    = {{Cambridge University Press}},
  series       = {{Psychological Medicine}},
  title        = {{Maternal half-sibling families with discordant fathers : A contrastive design assessing cross-generational paternal genetic transmission of alcohol use disorder, drug abuse and major depression}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S0033291719000874}},
  doi          = {{10.1017/S0033291719000874}},
  volume       = {{50}},
  year         = {{2020}},
}