Laura J. Bierut

Nov 6, 2023 | nature.com | Fang Fang |Bryan C Quach |Jesse Marks |Veronika V. Odintsova |Yujing Xia |Laura J. Bierut | +7 more

AbstractCannabis is widely used worldwide, yet its links to health outcomes are not fully understood. DNA methylation can serve as a mediator to link environmental exposures to health outcomes. We conducted an epigenome-wide association study (EWAS) of peripheral blood-based DNA methylation and lifetime cannabis use (ever vs. never) in a meta-analysis including 9436 participants (7795 European and 1641 African ancestry) from seven cohorts.

Aug 1, 2023 | ajp.psychiatryonline.org | Julie White |Laura J. Bierut

In this issue, Kember et al. (1) report an impressive undertaking to identify genetic contributors to both alcohol consumption and alcohol use disorder (AUD) in the largest study to date, both in terms of sample size and in terms of inclusion of non-European population groups.

Feb 13, 2023 | biologicalpsychiatryjournal.com | Laura J. Bierut

Substance use disorders (SUDs) are associated with a variety of co-occurring psychiatric disorders and other SUDs, which partly reflects genetic pleiotropy. Polygenic risk scores (PRSs) and phenome-wide association studies are useful in evaluating pleiotropic effects. However, the comparatively low prevalence of SUDs in population samples and the lack of detailed information available in electronic health records limit these data sets’ informativeness for such analyses.