Pubdate: Mon, 28 Jul 2003
Source: National Post (Canada)
Copyright: 2003 Southam Inc.
Contact:  http://www.nationalpost.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/286
Author: Joseph Brean

FAMILY PROBLEMS LEAD BOYS TO TRY DRUGS, WITH GIRLS IT'S GENETIC, STUDY SAYS

Teenaged boys tend to experiment with drugs because of family dysfunction 
or peer pressure, but drug use in girls is more sensitive to genetic 
factors, according to a sweeping study of American teens.

The findings call into question whether the same tactics should be used to 
prevent drug abuse in boys and girls, the authors say, and also provide new 
insight into the chicken and egg problem of mental illness and drug use.

"In girls, there was a significant genetic influence on all substance abuse 
in adolescence," said Judy Silberg, the lead author of the study on more 
than 1000 teenagers in Virginia. "There was no significant effect of the 
genes on drug use in boys."

That this difference -- between the natural drug user and the nurtured -- 
can be drawn along gender lines runs counter to the prevailing wisdom of 
drug prevention policy, which tends to paint boys and girls as similar in 
their drug experimentation -- girls are just a couple of years behind. By 
the end of high school, most studies have shown the two sexes to be almost 
neck and neck.

For this reason, education and prevention programs have tended to treat 
boys and girls as being at equal -- and similar -- risk of drug problems.

Dr. Silberg said her study shows the sexes should be treated differently, 
though. Girls' anti-social behaviours should be targeted directly, she 
said, while treatment for boys ought to focus on "altering those family and 
peer characteristics that are most influential."

The study looked at 629 pairs of twins over several years through childhood 
into adolescence in Virginia; the twins allowed for a valuable comparison 
between siblings who have identical genes but different life experiences 
and social environments.

The findings also have implications for the study of mental illness in 
teens, the authors say, because of the link they provide between early drug 
use and depression.

The problem of drug use and depression is often addressed by clinicians 
under the assumption that depressed people use drugs in an attempt at 
self-medication, with mental illness as the underlying cause of the drug use.

The findings among the female teens, however, suggest early drug use 
predicts depression much more reliably than vice versa.

In boys, environmental factors like family and friends seemed to be at the 
root of both depression and drug use; there was no clear evidence that the 
drugs were leading to depression or, conversely, that depression led them 
to use drugs.
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