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VCU, Swedish study finds resilience protects against risk for developing alcohol use disorders

VCU, Swedish study finds resilience protects against risk for developing alcohol use disorders

Resilience considerably reduces risk for developing alcohol use disorders, according to a new study conducted by researchers at Virginia Commonwealth University and Lund University in Sweden.

Substantial literature from the past few decades has investigated personality traits that are influential in the development of alcohol use disorders, but little attention has been paid to protective traits that guard against it.

“Studying protective factors rather than just what makes people at risk for something can inform prevention studies,” said first author Elizabeth ...

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Science says liberals, not conservatives, are psychotic

Science says liberals, not conservatives, are psychotic

Turns out liberals are the real authoritarians.

A political-science journal that published an oft-cited study claiming conservatives were more likely to show traits associated with “psychoticism” now says it got it wrong. Very wrong.

The American Journal of Political Science published a correction this year saying that the 2012 paper has “an error” — and that liberal political beliefs, not conservative ones, are actually linked to psychoticism.

“The interpretation of the coding of the political attitude items in the descriptive and preliminary analyses ...

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VCU, Swedish study finds marriage protects against risk for developing alcohol use disorders

VCU, Swedish study finds marriage protects against risk for developing alcohol use disorders

Marriage is causally related to a significant reduction in risk for development of alcohol use disorders, according to a new study conducted by researchers at Virginia Commonwealth University and Lund University in Sweden.

The study, which is titled, “Effect of Marriage on Risk for Onset of Alcohol Use Disorder: A Longitudinal and Co-Relative Analysis in a Swedish National Sample,” scientifically confirms the common observation that alcoholism is bad for marriages and that marriage might help protect against alcohol use problems. It ...

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New grant explores ties between alcohol abuse, genetics and romantic relationships

New grant explores ties between alcohol abuse, genetics and romantic relationships

A Virginia Commonwealth University professor has received a roughly $750,000 grant to study the complex interplay between alcohol abuse, romantic relationships and genetic predispositions to alcoholism during emerging adulthood.

Jessica Salvatore, Ph.D., an assistant professor in the Department of Psychology in the College of Humanities and Sciences, was awarded the five-year grant, “Genetics, Romantic Relationships, and Alcohol Misuse in Emerging Adulthood,” from the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism of the National Institutes of Health.

Salvatore, whose research focuses on how ...

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VCU, Swedish study finds schizophrenia risk better predicted by deviation in intelligence from family

VCU, Swedish study finds schizophrenia risk better predicted by deviation in intelligence from family

The degree to which an individual deviates in intelligence from their family is a more accurate predictor of schizophrenia development than the individual’s intelligence alone, according to a new study conducted by researchers at Virginia Commonwealth University and Lund University in Sweden.

The study confronts the conventional wisdom that low intelligence alone is a sufficient risk factor for schizophrenia development, going further to say that the risk for schizophrenia development is more accurately indexed by the degree to which an individual ...

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VCU and partners receive $5.7 million to continue transformative study of clinical depression

VCU and partners receive $5.7 million to continue transformative study of clinical depression

Virginia Commonwealth University is part of an international research team that has received a Wellcome Trust grant totaling more than $5.7 million to uncover the underlying biological processes that cause major depressive disorder. The study, to be conducted by researchers from VCU, the University of Oxford and throughout China, is an extension of a study from the same team that uncovered the first identified risk genes for clinical depression last year.

The design of the five-year study will replicate and extend ...

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VCU researchers and international partners first to identify shared risk genes for anxiety disorders

VCU researchers and international partners first to identify shared risk genes for anxiety disorders

In the largest and most comprehensive study of its kind, researchers have successfully identified two novel genetic variants that could increase risk for the five primary anxiety disorders. The findings are the result of an international collaboration among 34 researchers from Virginia Commonwealth University and throughout academic institutions in the United States, Europe and Australia.

The international research team looked at genetic risk factors that are common across the five primary anxiety disorders identified in the fifth edition of the Diagnostic ...

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Student researches ‘subtle biological differences’ of addiction

Student researches ‘subtle biological differences’ of addiction

Binge drinking is a growing problem in the United States, but are all problem drinkers the same? That is a question Virginia Commonwealth University student Megan Cooke hopes to answer.

Cooke has been interested in alcohol dependence and alcohol use behavior since receiving a postbaccalaureate Intramural Research Training Award to work at the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism. She quickly realized the importance of genetic influences in the development of addiction — “Ignoring [the genetics] would be ignoring a ...

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VCU psychiatry professor honored with prestigious award from the National Academy of Medicine

VCU psychiatry professor honored with prestigious award from the National Academy of Medicine

The National Academy of Medicine today awarded Virginia Commonwealth University psychiatry professor Kenneth S. Kendler, M.D., with the Rhoda and Bernard Sarnat International Prize in Mental Health in recognition of his research on the role of genes and environment in the development of psychiatric and substance use disorders.

The award was presented to the director of the Virginia Institute for Psychiatric and Behavioral Genetics at the NAM’s annual meeting in Washington, D.C. Kendler shares the recognition with Kay Jamison, Ph.D., professor ...

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VCU receives $5 million grant to study adolescent brain development

VCU receives $5 million grant to study adolescent brain development

The National Institutes of Health awarded a $5 million grant to Virginia Commonwealth University to take part in a landmark study on substance use and adolescent brain development. NIH’s Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development study is the largest longitudinal neuroimaging study of human brain development ever launched.

The five-year grant will fund research that aims to map the neuropsychological trajectories of the developing brain. The study holds the potential to expand on current understandings of both normal and atypical brain development across ...

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