Faculty, Staff and Student Publications
Publication Date
11-1-2024
Journal
Addiction Biology
Abstract
Individuals with a family history of alcohol or other substance use disorders (FH+) are at increased risk for developing alcohol and other substance use disorders (AUD/SUD) compared to individuals with no such family histories (FH-). FH+ young adults have blunted stress reactivity, lower cognitive performance and altered frontal white matter microstructure compared to FH- controls. We hypothesized that family history of AUD/SUD disrupts neuroendocrine regulation of the immune system in FH+ individuals, resulting in altered blood immune cell composition, inflammation and neurocognitive alterations that, ultimately, increases risk for AUD/SUD and associated psychopathology. We examined white blood cell (WBC) parameters derived from complete blood counts in FH+ (n = 37) and FH- (n = 77) young adults without AUD/SUD to test if immune system dysregulation is present in FH+ individuals. The total WBC count, number of neutrophils and number of monocytes and associated systemic inflammatory response index (SIRI) were significantly increased in the FH+ group. Further, WBC, neutrophil, monocyte counts and SIRI values were all positively correlated with FH density (number of biological parents and grandparents with AUD/SUD). These novel data are the first to identify an association between family history of AUD/SUD and increased circulating leukocytes, which is likely indicative of immune dysregulation in FH+ young adults prior to onset of AUD/SUD. Additional studies are warranted to characterize the functional relevance of the observed immune cell composition in FH+ individuals, but the notion that inexpensive and widely available blood tests may help identify addiction risk could be transformative.
Keywords
Humans, Male, Female, Young Adult, Substance-Related Disorders, Leukocyte Count, Adult, Leukocytes, Alcoholism, Neutrophils, Inflammation, Case-Control Studies, Monocytes, Adolescent
DOI
10.1111/adb.70000
PMID
39558659
PMCID
PMC11574109
PubMedCentral® Posted Date
11-29-2024
PubMedCentral® Full Text Version
Post-print
Published Open-Access
yes
Included in
Medical Sciences Commons, Medical Specialties Commons, Substance Abuse and Addiction Commons