MULTIVARIATE GENETIC-ANALYSIS OF THE CAUSES OF TEMPERANCE BOARD REGISTRATIONS - IN ALL SWEDISH MALE-FEMALE TWIN PAIRS BORN 1926-1949

Background The Temperance Boards in Sweden registered individuals for three reasons: public drunkenness, driving under the influence of alco hol and committing a crime in connection with alcohol. We wanted to as certain whether these three forms of alcohol-related problems result f rom similar or different genetic and environmental risk factors. Metho d We conducted a trivariate twin analysis of these three causes of reg istration in all male-female twin pairs of known zygosity born in Swed en, 1926-1949 (n=5177 twin pairs). Results Prevalences of registration for public drunkenness, drink-driving and alcohol-related crime were, respectively, 9.0, 3.6 and 4.0%. The best-fitting model had one gener al genetic and one general familial-environmental factor with specific genetic risk factors for drink-driving and specific familial environm ental risk factors for alcohol related crime. Conclusions The three ca uses for alcohol registration in Sweden largely reflect the same genet ic and environmental risk factors. Estimated heritabilities were simil ar for the three forms of registration. However, specific genetic risk factors exist for drink-driving and specific Familial-environmental r isk factors for alcohol-related crime. Genetic factors are somewhat le ss important and familial-environmental factors more important for pub lic drunkenness than for drink-driving and alcohol related crime.