Turns out your parent’s advice about choosing high school friends wisely was spot on. A new study has found that your friends’ genetic traits can impact your own risk of developing mental health issues and substance use disorders. The study published Wednesday in the American Journal of Psychiatry found that a peer’s genetic predispositions for psychiatric and substance use disorders are linked with an individual’s own risk of developing the same disorders in young adulthood.
“Certainly, this is something that as parents, when you think, ‘Who is my kid affiliating with?’ Those concerns are very valid,” said Jessica Salvatore, lead author and associate professor of psychiatry at the Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, in New Brunswick, N.J. “What we’re showing here is that above and beyond our own genetic predispositions, the genetic makeup of the people we are surrounded by matters,” she told Global News.
Story continues below advertisement 0:26 New discovery could lay groundwork for effective alcoholism treatment It is known that genetic predispositions play a critical role in the etiology of common psychiatric conditions, including drug and alcohol use disorders , major depression , and anxiety disorder, the authors argue. The latest health and medical news emailed to you every Sunday. Get weekly health news Receive the latest medical news and health information delivered to you every Sunday.
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