Your Friends' Genes May Harm or Help You
By Ernie Mundell HealthDay Reporter
WEDNESDAY, Aug. 7, 2024 -- Remember your besties from high school? Sure, they made a lasting impression, but science suggests they influenced the trajectory of your health, too.
It's not that far-fetched: Your friends carry genes that may or may nor predispose them to mental health issues ranging from addiction to anxiety and depression. That can influence the mental health of the people in their friend circle, according to researchers at Rutgers University in New Jersey.
“Peers’ genetic predispositions for psychiatric and substance use disorders are associated with an individual's own risk of developing the same disorders in young adulthood,” said study lead author Jessica Salvatore.
“What our data exemplifies is the long reach of social genetic effects,” she said in a Rutgers news release. Salvatore is an associate professor of psychiatry at the university.
It's a relatively new field of research called socio-genomics: How one person's genetic makeup ("genotype") can influence a wider network of people.
Just how powerful is the socio-genomic effect? To find out, Salvatore's group looked at Swedish data on over 1.5 million individuals born in Sweden between 1980 and 1998.
They then pinpointed exactly where everyone went to school in their teen years. That was followed up by a deep dive into local medical, pharmacy and legal registries that documented any history of substance use and mental health disorders for the same individuals in adulthood.
Sophisticated computer modeling was then used to assess whether the genetic predispositions of a person's peer group was associated with aspects of that person's mental health.
The result: Clear links were seen between a close friend's genetic predispositions and an individuals’ likelihood of developing a substance use or psychiatric disorder, the team reported.
The effects were stronger between people who went to school together versus simply growing up in the same locale, Salvatore's group added.
The researchers could even pinpoint which years were most crucial to the effect: A period between the ages of 16 and 19 for kids engaged in the same vocational or college-preparatory track in high school.
For school-based peers, the genetic effect was especially strong for drug and alcohol use disorders, the study found.
The findings were published Aug. 7 in the American Journal of Psychiatry.
According to Salvatore, tackling problems like drug abuse, anxiety and depression in youth may mean widening the focus beyond one individual.
“If we want to think about how to best address these socially costly disorders, we need to think more about network-based and social interventions,” she said. “It’s not enough to think about individual risk.”
Salvatore stressed that the effects can last long after graduation day.
"Peer genetic influences have a very long reach,” she said.
Sources
- Rutgers University, news release, Aug. 7, 2024
Disclaimer: Statistical data in medical articles provide general trends and do not pertain to individuals. Individual factors can vary greatly. Always seek personalized medical advice for individual healthcare decisions.
![](/img/logo/vendor/healthday-logo.png)
© 2024 HealthDay. All rights reserved.
Posted August 2024
Read this next
Too Much Time Watching Screens in 20s Raises Heart Attack Risk
FRIDAY, Aug. 23, 2024 -- Spend your youth glued to your phone, computer and TV and you cut your odds of making it to 60, a new study warns. Data from a study tracking the health...
Laws That Remove Guns From 'At Risk' People Save Lives
FRIDAY, Aug. 23, 2024 -- “Red flag” laws are an effective means of preventing suicide, a new study finds. About one life was saved for every 17 times that an extreme...
Are 'Bed Rotting' and Other TikTok Sleep Trends Good for You?
FRIDAY, Aug. 23, 2024 -- Many young adults are experimenting with “bed rotting” and other sleep trends that have gone viral on TikTok and other social media platforms...
More news resources
- FDA Medwatch Drug Alerts
- Daily MedNews
- News for Health Professionals
- New Drug Approvals
- New Drug Applications
- Drug Shortages
- Clinical Trial Results
- Generic Drug Approvals
Subscribe to our newsletter
Whatever your topic of interest, subscribe to our newsletters to get the best of Drugs.com in your inbox.