TY  - JOUR
A1  - Buchmann, Arlette F.
A1  - Schmid, Brigitte
A1  - Blomeyer, Dorothea
A1  - Becker, Katja
A1  - Treutlein, Jens
A1  - Zimmermann, Ulrich S.
A1  - Jennen-Steinmetz, Christine
A1  - Schmidt, Martin H.
A1  - Esser, Günter
A1  - Banaschewski, Tobias
A1  - Rietschel, Marcella
A1  - Schumann, Gunter
A1  - Laucht, Manfred
T1  - Impact of age at first drink on vulnerability to alcohol-related problems : testing the marker hypothesis in a prospective study of young adults
N2  - There is ample evidence that the early initiation of alcohol use is a risk factor for the development of later alcohol-related problems. The purpose of the current study was to examine whether this association can be explained by indicators of a common underlying susceptibility or whether age at drinking onset may be considered as an independent predictor of later drinking behavior, suggesting a potential causal relationship. Participants were drawn from a prospective cohort study of the long-term outcomes of early risk factors followed up from birth onwards. Structured interviews were administered to 304 participants to assess age at first drink and current drinking behavior. Data on risk factors, including early family adversity, parental alcohol use, childhood psychopathology and stressful life events, were repeatedly collected during childhood using standardized parent interviews. In addition, information on genotype was considered. Results confirmed previous work demonstrating that hazardous alcohol consumption is related to early-adolescent drinking onset. A younger age of first drink was significantly predicted by 5-HTTLPR genotype and the degree of preceding externalizing symptoms, and both factors were related to increased consumption or harmful alcohol use at age 19. However, even after controlling for these potential explanatory factors, earlier age at drinking onset remained a strong predictor of heavy alcohol consumption in young adulthood. The present longitudinal study adds to the current literature indicating that the early onset - adult hazardous drinking association cannot solely be attributed to shared genetic and psychopathologic risk factors as examined in this study.
Y1  - 2009
UR  - http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/00223956
U6  - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jpsychires.2009.02.006
SN  - 0022-3956
ER  - 
TY  - JOUR
A1  - Holz, Nathalie E.
A1  - Boecker-Schlier, Regina
A1  - Buchmann, Arlette F.
A1  - Blomeyer, Dorothea
A1  - Jennen-Steinmetz, Christine
A1  - Baumeister, Sarah
A1  - Plichta, Michael M.
A1  - Cattrell, Anna
A1  - Schumann, Gunter
A1  - Esser, Günter
A1  - Schmidt, Martin
A1  - Buitelaar, Jan
A1  - Meyer-Lindenberg, Andreas
A1  - Banaschewski, Tobias
A1  - Brandeis, Daniel
A1  - Laucht, Manfred
T1  - Ventral striatum and amygdala activity as convergence sites for early adversity and conduct disorder
JF  - Frontiers in human neuroscience
N2  - Childhood family adversity (CFA) increases the risk for conduct disorder (CD) and has been associated with alterations in regions of affective processing like ventral striatum (VS) and amygdala. However, no study so far has demonstrated neural converging effects of CFA and CD in the same sample. At age 25 years, functional MRI data during two affective tasks, i.e. a reward (N = 171) and a face-matching paradigm (N = 181) and anatomical scans (N = 181) were acquired in right-handed currently healthy participants of an epidemiological study followed since birth. CFA during childhood was determined using a standardized parent interview. Disruptive behaviors and CD diagnoses during childhood and adolescence were obtained by diagnostic interview (2–19 years), temperamental reward dependence was assessed by questionnaire (15 and 19 years).

CFA predicted increased CD and amygdala volume. Both exposure to CFA and CD were associated with a decreased VS response during reward anticipation and blunted amygdala activity during face-matching. CD mediated the effect of CFA on brain activity. Temperamental reward dependence was negatively correlated with CFA and CD and positively with VS activity. These findings underline the detrimental effects of CFA on the offspring's affective processing and support the importance of early postnatal intervention programs aiming to reduce childhood adversity factors.
KW  - childhood adversity
KW  - conduct disorder
KW  - amygdala
KW  - ventral striatum
KW  - fMRI
Y1  - 2016
U6  - https://doi.org/10.1093/scan/nsw120
SN  - 1749-5016
SN  - 1749-5024
VL  - 12
IS  - 2
SP  - 261
EP  - 272
PB  - Oxford Univ. Press
CY  - Oxford
ER  -