My twin sister and I celebrating our first Christmas (Can you guess who is who?)

5/20/2011

Alcohol Misuse Among Twins


So far we've seen that that personality, sexual orientation, or ideology are all influenced by genes; This has been showcased in the twin studies in which most twins all had similar physical attributes and character traits, unless they were reared apart and further influenced by differing environments and upbringings. However, I will introduce another trait that is fairly common among twins and thus affected by genes: alcohol misuse.

In recent studies, both female and male twins seemed to have high concordance rates on alcohol misuse- above 50%. Although studies are still hazy, there has been clear evidence that genes do play a major role in this subject. The risk for genetic influences to take effect on women regarding alcohol misuse can range from 50-61%. Curiously, the concordance rate tends to be lower among fraternal twins and be higher among identical twins. Enough being said, the similar genes in twins play a key role determining if they will begin misconduct with alcohol. Timothy J. Peters, author of Alcohol Misuse: A European Perspective states that "...genetic factors play a major role in the etiology of alcoholism in women."

Peters, T. J. (2005). Alcohol misuse: a european perspective [29-33]. (Adobe eReader Format), Retrieved from http://books.google.com/books?id=0vUcTbQlzk8C&printsec=copyright#v=onepage&q&f=false

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