Michael T Lynskey

..Previous research has reported both a moderate degree of comorbidity between cannabis dependence and major depressive disorder (MDD) and that early-onset cannabis use is associated with increased risks for MDD...

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..To examine the extent to which weekly cannabis use during mid-adolescence may increase the risk of early school-leaving...

..Previous studies have reported that early initiation of cannabis (marijuana) use is a significant risk factor for other drug use and drug-related problems...

..We tested whether alcohol, nicotine, and illicit drug use and dependence were associated with lifetime educational attainment after controlling for familial background characteristics...

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..A high genetic correlation between these measures would suggest that a continuous measure of consumption may have a useful role in the discovery of genes contributing to dependence risk...

..Findings characterize a rarely examined aspect of the course of ND development and highlight critical distinctions in risk profiles across stages of tobacco involvement...

..If there is evidence in its favor, the increased rates of cigarette smoking in cannabis users may prove to be the most significant public health problem associated with cannabis use...

..We examine whether cannabis use prior to age 17 years is associated with an increased likelihood of DSM-IV nicotine dependence and the extent to which genetic and environmental factors contribute to this association...

..In this study, we examine whether age at first drink moderates genetic and environmental influences, via gene x environment interactions, on DSM-IV alcohol dependence symptoms...

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..We investigated the genetic and environmental contributions to covariation between smoking age-at-onset, cigarette consumption and smoking persistence...

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..The endocannabinoid system has been implicated in stress adaptation and the regulation of mood in rodent studies, but few human association studies have examined these links and replications are limited...

..We examine mechanisms by which PSI influences the etiology of regular substance involvement (RSI), particularly in women...

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..Findings indicate that CSA and elevated risk for AD may be linked via early age at first drink and that progression from first drink to AD follows a similar course among women with and without histories of CSA...

..Aggregation of population-level data may obscure important subgroup differences in patterns of illicit drug use and psychiatric comorbidity. Further exploration of a 'self-medicating' subgroup is needed...

..This study examined the relationships between self-reported childhood sexual abuse (CSA) and drug-related outcomes in an Australian twin panel...

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..While there were high genetic correlations in both women and men, lifetime duration of cannabis may be uniquely informative in assessing components of liability to cannabis use...

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..We investigated whether use and early-onset use of cigarettes, alcohol and cannabis contributed an increase in risk for initiation of subsequent psychoactive substances in women (N = 3729, mean age = 21.7)...

..05). The lack of replication may point to our limited understanding of the neurobiology of cannabis involvement and also to potential publication bias and false-positive findings in previous studies...

..In this study, we characterize patterns of cannabis and tobacco use (tobacco but not cannabis, cannabis but not tobacco or both) and compare the factors associated with onset of tobacco before cannabis and cannabis before tobacco...

..In contrast to previous research, there is limited evidence for increased risk associated with early-onset use in this sample of Vietnam-era veterans...

..In adolescent girls especially, rates of cannabis use have increased over the last decade, urging the need to characterize the potential correlates of onset of cannabis use during emerging adulthood...

..Despite accumulating evidence that there is a genetic basis for cannabis use disorders (ie, abuse and dependence), few studies have identified genomic regions that may harbor biological risk and protective factors...

..Differences in findings may also reflect a distinct etiological pathway for substance use initiation in African-American women that could not be detected in previous studies...

..The purpose of this study was to develop a quantitative measure of alcohol consumption for gene-mapping studies...

..Design Members of monozygotic and dizygotic, including unlike-sex twin pairs (n = 6257) from a young adult cohort from the Australian Twin Registry...

..To estimate the magnitude of genetic and environmental influences on timing of first alcohol use and alcohol dependence (AD) and to quantify the overlap in these influences across the two alcohol-related outcomes...

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..The goal of this study was to develop a factor score derived from measures of past-12-month alcohol consumption...

..Alcohol-induced blackouts (ie, periods of anterograde amnesia) have received limited recent research attention...

..We use the result of these analyses to show how the use of a particular drug disorder phenotype for selecting cases could impact final sample composition...

..To provide an overview of the genetic epidemiology of substance use and misuse in adolescents...

..Qualitative research suggests that a shared route of administration (i.e. via inhalation) for the common forms of both tobacco (i.e. cigarettes) and cannabis (i.e. joints) may contribute to their co-occurring use...

..Although there is a long tradition in alcoholism research of using family history ratings, the interpretability of family history reports of alcoholism from general community samples has yet to be established...

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..The goal of this study was the genetic analysis of MDD in an epidemiologically and genetically representative sample of adolescent female twins...

..Given the high addictive potential of nicotine and the ubiquitous nature of cannabis use, this is a public health concern worthy of considerable attention...

..However, there is growing evidence that cannabis onset occurs later in life as well and little is known of the risk and protective influences that are associated with late-onset cannabis initiation...

..Much expectancy research has been conducted in the context of alcohol; however, less is known about the structure of expectancies for marijuana and their associations with marijuana use outcomes...

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..While replication is required, this study represents an important first step toward clarifying the biological underpinnings of cannabis dependence...

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..We examine the co-occurrence of abuse/dependence across different illicit drugs and test associations between these classes and major psychiatric disorders...

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..Our findings suggest that these disorders partially mediate CSA-associated risk...

..We used data on a previously defined alcohol consumption factor score in a sample of 827 young women to investigate association with 1,014 single-nucleotide polymorphisms in genes related to addiction...

..With a focus on the classical twin design that utilizes data on monozygotic and dizygotic twins, we discuss support in favor of heritable influences on alcohol, nicotine, cannabis and other illicit drug dependence...

..Illustrative application of the model to Australian twin data on smoking confirmed substantial heritability of smoking persistence (42%) with minimal overlap with genetic influences on initiation...

..The purpose of this study was to estimate associations between early-onset alcohol use/intoxication and subsequent risks of alcohol-related driving risks in young women after control for familial liability for these behaviors...

..While both ND and SLEs have been studied extensively in relation to other variables, there are few instances in which they have been investigated in concert...

..Additional directions for research, including the incorporation of measured genes and the use of longitudinal designs, are proposed to further efforts to model the pathways from CSA to alcohol-related problems...

..Evidence from this and prior studies demonstrating withdrawal strongly suggest that future editions of DSM need to reconsider the exclusion of withdrawal from criteria for cannabis dependence...

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..We conclude that the criteria that serve as indicators of DSM-IV cannabis abuse and dependence do not function identically in men and women and that certain criteria (e.g. hazardous use) require further refinement...

..Early alcohol use is associated with abuse and dependence of licit and illicit substances later in life. The role of genetic and environmental factors in this association is not conclusive...

..We identified one region suggestive of linkage on chromosome 11p12. This locus, as well as another region identified on chromosome 6p12, replicates regions identified in previous studies...

..To identify childhood risk factors that predict (a) age of first drink and (b) time from first use to alcohol dependence (AD) onset, using survival analysis...

..Rates of DSM-IV cannabis use disorders in those with BD were 29.4% and were independently and significantly associated with increased suicide attempts, greater likelihood of mixed episodes and greater disability attributable to BD...

..These include: interactions with prescribed medications, under-recognition and treatment of alcohol and drug problems, unintentional injury and social isolation. Finally, a brief discussion of treatment issues is provided...

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..The genetic etiology of cannabis use, abuse and dependence has elicited significant interest from genetic epidemiologists...

..Both are commonly initiated in adolescence. To date little research has described trajectories of adolescent cannabis or alcohol use or compared their respective consequences in young adulthood...

..While there is a growing literature on the linkages between early subjective responses to nicotine and alcohol and later risks of nicotine or alcohol dependence, to date there has been no study of this issue in relation to cannabis...

..AIM 5: Based on these analyses, to formulate a model for unfolding of genetic influences on transitions in cannabis and the emergence of dependence symptoms. ..

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