Substance use, childhood traumatic experience, and Posttraumatic Stress Disorder in an urban civilian population.

OBJECTIVE: Exposure to traumatic experiences, especially those occurring in childhood, has been linked to substance use disorders (SUDs), including abuse and dependence. SUDs are also highly comorbid with Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and other mood-related psychopathology. Most studies examining the relationship between PTSD and SUDs have examined veteran populations or patients in substance treatment programs. The present study further examines this relationship between childhood trauma, substance use, and PTSD in a sample of urban primary care patients. METHOD: There were 587 participants included in this study, all recruited from medical and OB/GYN clinic waiting rooms at Grady Memorial Hospital in Atlanta, GA. Data were collected through both screening interviews as well as follow-up interviews. RESULTS: In this highly traumatized population, high rates of lifetime dependence on various substances were found (39% alcohol, 34.1% cocaine, 6.2% heroin/opiates, and 44.8% marijuana). The level of substance use, particularly cocaine, strongly correlated with levels of childhood physical, sexual, and emotional abuse as well as current PTSD symptoms. In particular, there was a significant additive effect of number of types of childhood trauma experienced with history of cocaine dependence in predicting current PTSD symptoms, and this effect was independent of exposure to adult trauma. CONCLUSIONS: These data show strong links between childhood traumatization and SUDs, and their joint associations with PTSD outcome. They suggest that enhanced awareness of PTSD and substance abuse comorbidity in high-risk, impoverished populations is critical to understanding the mechanisms of substance addiction as well as in improving prevention and treatment.

Addictions biology: haplotype-based analysis for 130 candidate genes on a single array.

AIMS: To develop a panel of markers able to extract full haplotype information for candidate genes in alcoholism, other addictions and disorders of mood and anxiety. METHODS: A total of 130 genes were haplotype tagged and genotyped in 7 case/control populations and 51 reference populations using Illumina GoldenGate SNP genotyping technology, determining haplotype coverage. We also constructed and determined the efficacy of a panel of 186 ancestry informative markers. RESULTS: An average of 1465 loci were genotyped at an average completion rate of 91.3%, with an average call rate of 98.3% and replication rate of 99.7%. Completion and call rates were lowered by the performance of two datasets, highlighting the importance of the DNA quality in high throughput assays. A comparison of haplotypes captured by the Addictions Array tagging SNPs and commercially available whole-genome arrays from Illumina and Affymetrix shows comparable performance of the tag SNPs to the best whole-genome array in all populations for which data are available. CONCLUSIONS: Arrays of haplotype-tagged candidate genes, such as this addictions-focused array, represent a cost-effective approach to generate high-quality SNP genotyping data useful for the haplotype-based analysis of panels of genes such as these 130 genes of interest to alcohol and addictions researchers. The inclusion of the 186 ancestry informative markers allows for the detection and correction for admixture and further enhances the utility of the array.