THE ASSOCIATION OF ANTISOCIAL PERSONALITY SYMPTOMS WITH MARIJUANA ABUSE DEPENDENCE - A MONOZYGOTIC COTWIN CONTROL STUDY/

Citation
Jf. Scherrer et al., THE ASSOCIATION OF ANTISOCIAL PERSONALITY SYMPTOMS WITH MARIJUANA ABUSE DEPENDENCE - A MONOZYGOTIC COTWIN CONTROL STUDY/, The Journal of nervous and mental disease, 184(10), 1996, pp. 611-615
Citations number
22
Categorie Soggetti
Psychiatry,Psychiatry,"Clinical Neurology
ISSN journal
00223018
Volume
184
Issue
10
Year of publication
1996
Pages
611 - 615
Database
ISI
SICI code
0022-3018(1996)184:10<611:TAOAPS>2.0.ZU;2-I
Abstract
This study examines the association of symptoms of lifetime antisocial personality disorder (ASP) with marijuana abuse/dependence in Vietnam -era veteran male monozygotic twin pairs. In 1992, 1,874 monozygotic t win pairs responded to a structured psychiatric interview that obtaine d data on lifetime history of drug use and ASP. Among randomly selecte d individuals from each twin pair, 8 of 10 ASP symptoms were significa ntly more prevalent in persons with a lifetime history of marijuana ab use/dependence compared with those who had never abused any drug (p < .001). Among 99 marijuana discordant twin pairs, however, only two ASP symptoms, ''failure to conform to social norms'' (odds ratio, 2.8; 95 % confidence interval, 1.5 to 5.5) and ''reckless regard of own or oth er's personal safety'' (odds ratio, 2.4; 95% confidence interval, 1.0 to 5.4) were significantly increased in marijuana abusing/dependent tw ins compared with their nonabusing/nondependent twin brother. After ad justment for conduct disorder, alcohol abuse/dependence, and exposure to combat in Vietnam, only ''failure to conform to social norms of law ful behavior'' (odds ratio, 2.42; 95% confidence interval, 1.12 to 5.2 1) remained significantly increased in twins with marijuana abuse/depe ndence.