The monoamine oxidase A (MAO-A) gene, family function and maltreatment as predictors of destructive behaviour during male adolescent alcohol consumption.

AIM: To investigate possible interactions between a polymorphism in the monoamine oxidase A (MAO-A) gene promoter, family relations and maltreatment/sexual abuse on adolescent alcohol-related problem behaviour among male adolescents. DESIGN, SETTING AND PARTICIPANTS: A cross-sectional study of a randomized sample of 66 male individuals from a total population of 16- and 19-year adolescents from a Swedish county. Boys, who volunteered to participate answering an alcohol-related problem/behaviour questionnaire, were investigated with regard to interactions between such problems, family function, maltreatment and MAO-A genotype. MEASUREMENTS: MAO-A genotype, family relations history, history of being maltreated or abused and alcohol-related problem behaviour.
FINDINGS: Boys with the short (three-repeat) variant of the MAO-A gene, who had been maltreated/abused or came from families with poor relations, showed significantly higher scores of alcohol-related problems. We also found that maltreatment/abuse independently showed the strongest relation to alcohol-related problems among boys in our model.
CONCLUSIONS: The results suggest that both maltreatment and MAO-A genotype may be useful for the understanding of male adolescent alcohol-related problem behaviour.