Effect of chronic alcohol consumption on brain structure in males with alcohol use disorder without a familiar history of alcoholism

Martínez-Maldonado, Andrés; Verdejo‐Román, Juan; Sión, Ana; Rubio, Gabriel; Pérez‐García, Miguel; Jurado‐Barba, Rosa

doi:10.1016/j.jpsychires.2022.03.005

Cited by 2 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 30 publications

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“…We also predicted, based on previous studies in AUD, that much of these differences would be associated with reduced hippocampal, amygdala, and prefrontal volume changes within the ACoA group that engaged in hazardous alcohol use. Lastly, we predicted that, like previous studies examining alcohol use (Sullivan and Pfefferbaum, 2019, Mavromatis et al, 2022, Martínez-Maldonado et al, 2022, Oblak et al, 2021, Luo et al, 2020, Rosen et al, 2018, Fiorito et al, 2019), our ACoA group with hazardous alcohol use would show advanced epigenetic aging reflected in a higher PEAD score than both the control and the ACoA group without hazardous alcohol use.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 57%

“…By measuring age-associated methylation changes at specific 5'C-phosphate-G-3' (CpG) sites, it is possible to create "epigenetic clocks." These clocks are highly correlated with an individual's chronological age, with correlation values up to 0.96 (Horvath, 2013) (Sullivan and Pfefferbaum, 2019, Mavromatis et al, 2022, Martínez-Maldonado et al, 2022, Oblak et al, 2021. Based on these previous results, we predicted that only vulnerable ACoAs would show increased EpiAge when compared to both a control sample and resilient ACoAs.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 57%

“…Similar to brain age calculations, the predicted EpiAge score can be compared to chronological age to calculate a difference score, predicted EpiAge difference (PEAD). Such measures of age acceleration have been examined with respect to alcohol use in large, demonstrating increased epigenetic age being associated with increased levels of alcohol consumption (Sullivan and Pfefferbaum, 2019, Mavromatis et al, 2022, Martínez-Maldonado et al, 2022, Oblak et al, 2021). Based on these previous results, we predicted that only vulnerable ACoAs would show increased EpiAge when compared to both a control sample and resilient ACoAs.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Differing effects of alcohol use on epigenetic and brain age in adult children of alcoholic parents

Scholl,

Pearson,

Fercho

et al. 2023

Preprint

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It is known that being the adult child of an alcoholic (ACoA) can confer a wide variety of increased health and psychological risks, including higher rates of anxiety, depression, and posttraumatic stress disorder symptoms. Additionally, ACoAs are at greater risk of developing substance use disorders than individuals from non-alcoholic families. To better understand the psychobiological factors underlying these risks, ACoA individuals with risky hazardous alcohol use (n=14) and those not engaged in hazardous use (n=14) were compared to a group of healthy controls. We examined structural brain differences and applied machine learning algorithms to predict biological brain and DNA methylation ages to investigate differences between these groups. Contrary to our hypothesis, we found that hazardous and non-hazardous ACoA groups had lower predicted brain ages than the healthy control group (n=100), which may result from neuro-developmental differences between ACoA groups and controls. When examining specific brain regions, we observed decreased cortical volume within bilateral pars orbitalis and frontal poles, as well as the left middle temporal gyrus and entorhinal cortex within the hazardous alcohol ACoA group, all areas consistent with previous research examining how alcohol use affects brain structure. When looking at the epigenetic aging data, the hazardous ACoA participants had increased predicted epigenetic age difference scores compared to the control group (n=34) and the non-hazardous ACoA participant groups. In summary, the results demonstrate a decreased brain age in the ACoAs compared to control, concurrent with increased epigenetic age specifically in the hazardous ACoA group, laying the foundation for future research to identify individuals that may have an increased susceptibility to developing hazardous alcohol use. Together, these results provide a better understanding of the associations between epigenetic factors, brain structure, and alcohol use disorders.

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