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
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.