Heritability of lifetime ecstasy use

•In a twin study we determined for the first time the heritability of ecstasy use.•Lifetime ecstasy use is highly heritable.•Some people are genetically more vulnerable to start using ecstasy than others. Ecstasy is a widely used psychoactive drug that users often take because they experience positi...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Drug and alcohol dependence 2017-09, Vol.178, p.66-69
Main Authors: Verweij, Karin J.H., Treur, Jorien L., Vreeker, Annabel, Brunt, Tibor M., Willemsen, Gonneke, Boomsma, Dorret I., Vink, Jacqueline M.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Drug use
Ecstasy
Ecstasy drug
Environment
Euphoria
Female
Females
Genetic factors
Genetics
Heritability
Humans
Individual differences
Liability
Male
Males
MDMA
Mood
N-Methyl-3,4-methylenedioxyamphetamine - chemistry
Netherlands
Partition
Prevalence
Psychotropic drugs
Psychotropic Drugs - chemistry
Psychotropic Drugs - pharmacology
Questionnaires
Registries
Sampling methods
Sex differences
Siblings
Side effects
Sociability
Substance use
Surveys and Questionnaires
Twin studies
Twin study
Twins
Twins - genetics
Twins, Dizygotic - genetics
Twins, Monozygotic - genetics
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Summary:•In a twin study we determined for the first time the heritability of ecstasy use.•Lifetime ecstasy use is highly heritable.•Some people are genetically more vulnerable to start using ecstasy than others. Ecstasy is a widely used psychoactive drug that users often take because they experience positive effects such as increased euphoria, sociability, elevated mood, and heightened sensations. Ecstasy use is not harmless and several immediate and long term side effects have been identified. Lifetime ecstasy use is likely to be partly influenced by genetic factors, but no twin study has determined the heritability. Here, we apply a classical twin design to a large sample of twins and siblings to estimate the heritability of lifetime ecstasy use. The sample comprised 8500 twins and siblings aged between 18 and 45 years from 5402 families registered at the Netherlands Twin Registry. In 2013–2014 participants filled out a questionnaire including a question whether they had ever used ecstasy. We used the classical twin design to partition the individual differences in liability to ecstasy use into that due to genetic, shared environmental, and residual components. Overall, 10.4% of the sample had used ecstasy during their lifetime, with a somewhat higher prevalence in males than females. Twin modelling indicated that individual differences in liability to lifetime ecstasy use are for 74% due to genetic differences between individuals, whereas shared environmental and residual factors explain a small proportion of its liability (5% and 21%, respectively). Although heritability estimates appeared to be higher for females than males, this difference was not significant. Lifetime ecstasy use is a highly heritable trait, which indicates that some people are genetically more vulnerable to start using ecstasy than others.
ISSN:0376-8716
1879-0046
DOI:10.1016/j.drugalcdep.2017.05.007