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Neurocognitive and genetic influences on post-traumatic stress and risky alcohol use in traumaexposed adolescents and young adult offspring from families enriched with Alcohol Use
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Meyers, Jacquelyn, Porjesz, Bernice
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Fall 2021
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2021-12-08
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Abstract
Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a psychiatric disorder that is triggered by a stressor
involving threat of death or serious injury, and is associated with symptoms of re-experiencing,
avoidance, and hyper-arousal. While over half of the United States population is exposed to a
traumatic event at some point in their lifetime, only 6-8% of the population will develop PTSD.
Further, PTSD is associated with increased risk for adverse conditions, such as suicidal ideations,
chronic pain, major depression, alcohol and other substance use disorders. Alcohol use disorders
(AUDs) occur in approximately 12-30% of the population and have been associated with impaired
cognitive function, physical health problems, job loss, and relationship problems. PTSD and AUD
commonly co-occur, with approximately one-third of individuals with PTSD reporting a lifetime
diagnosis of AUD. Individuals with PTSD and co-occurring AUD have greater cognitive
impairment, worse treatment outcomes, increased risk for legal problems, higher rates of
unemployment, interpersonal problems, and poor quality of life. Therefore, there is great need to
better understand the etiology of co-occurring PTSD-AUD. While previous research has pointed
to the multifactorial risk for these disorders, including socio-demographic characteristics, adverse
life experiences, genomic and neurodevelopmental risk factors, little research has integrated data
across these domains to study pathways of risk for PTSD and co-occurring AUD.
This dissertation study aims to investigate the influence of trauma exposure, family history of
AUD, and other important risk factors (i.e., sex, neurocognitive function, response inhibition,
genetic vulnerability) during adolescence and young adulthood, on risk for PTSD and co-occurring
AUD. This research will be carried out using data from the Collaborative Studies on Genetics of
Alcoholism (COGA), a deeply characterized sample of families densely affected with AUD.
Overall, the findings from this dissertation demonstrate the importance of considering genetic,
social environmental, and neurocognitive factors together when investigating influences of risk for
the development of PTSD and co-occurring AUDs, especially during the vulnerable and critical
developmental period of adolescence. These findings suggest that trauma exposure during adolescence, specifically assaultive trauma (nonsexual and sexual), influences critical aspects of
executive function (e.g., response inhibition) in adulthood. Further, polygenic risk for cognitive
function may interact with these traumatic exposures, further impairing executive function by
influencing neural processes, specifically seen through frontal theta event-related oscillations
during response inhibition. Therefore, trauma-exposed adolescents with a family history of AUDs
may benefit from early intervention and treatment strategies aimed at reducing the severity and
endurance of PTSD and co-occurring AUD and related impaired cognitive function in adulthood.
Citation
Saenz de Viteri, S. (2021). Neurocognitive and genetic influences on post-traumatic stress and risky alcohol use in traumaexposed adolescents and young adult offspring from families enriched with Alcohol Use [Doctoral dissertation, SUNY Downstate Health Sciences University]. SUNY Open Access Repository. https://soar.suny.edu/handle/20.500.12648/16296