Nurture Beats Nature in At-Risk Teens

With a little bit of help, genetic tendencies to self-destruction can be blunted.

Drug abuse researchers from the National Institutes of Health report that counseling prevented risky behavior in teens carrying a gene variant linked to drug abuse and dangerous impulses.

The teens were part of an ongoing substance abuse prevention program in rural Georgia. For two and a half years, researchers monitored 641 adolescents, of whom 291 received several health-advice mailings while the rest underwent counseling sessions with their families.

At the end of the study they were tested for a variant form of a gene known as 5-HTTLPR. The gene affects transport through the brain of serotonin, a mood-regulating neurotransmitter, and its so-called short allele version has been associated with binge drinking and drug use.

Among teens who received the mailings, carriers of the short allele 5-HTTLPR were twice as likely to have engaged in risky behavior. In the counseling group, however, there was no difference between teens with the variant and without. The gene’s real-world effects had been nullified.

“This study is an excellent example of how we can target prevention interventions based on a person’s genetic make-up to reduce their substance abuse risk,” said Nora Volkow, director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse, in a press release.

See Also:

• Popular Wakefulness Drug May Be Addictive
• Darker Skin Linked to Nicotine Dependence

Image: Flickr/a4gpa

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