PERSONALITY, PSYCHOPATHOLOGY, AND NICOTINE RESPONSE AS MEDIATORS OF THE GENETICS OF SMOKING

Individual differences in psychopathology, personality, and nicotine r esponsivity and their biological bases are evaluated as mechanisms pot entially mediating smoking heritability. Smokers are more likely to be high in neurotic traits (e.g., depression, anxiety, anger) and in soc ial alienation (psychoticism, impulsivity, unsocialized sensation-seek ing, low conscientiousness, low agreeableness) and low in achievement/ socioeconomic status. Psychological and biological mechanisms putative ly mediating these associations are reviewed. It is concluded that a n umber of relatively indirect and complex processes, as well as more di rect (e.g., self-medication for psychopathology, nicotine sensitivity) , mediate the inheritance of smoking behavior.