Family-Based Interventions for Substance Use and Misuse Prevention

Because “substance abuse” is a “family disease” of lifestyle, including both genetic and family environmental causes, effective family strengthening prevention programs should be included in all comprehensive substance abuse prevention activities. This article presents reviews of causal models of substance use and evidence-based practices. National searches by the authors suggest that there is sufficient research evidence to support broad dissemination of five highly effective family strengthening approaches (e.g., behavioral parent training, family skills training, in-home family support, brief family therapy, and family education). Additionally, family approaches have average effect sizes two to nine time larger than child-only prevention approaches. Comprehensive prevention programs combining both approaches produced much larger effect sizes. The Strengthening Families Program (SFP) is the only one of these programs that has been replicated with positive results by independent researchers with different cultural groups and with different ages of children. Few research-based programs have been adopted by practitioners, partly because of technology transfer issues. Overall, research on ways to improve dissemination, marketing, training, and funding is needed to improve adoption of effective prevention programs.     

听障儿童早期家庭康复指导工作模式探索

随着新生儿听力筛查技术、助听技术的发展及康复救助政策的不断完善,我国听障儿童早期干预出现了康复对象小龄化的趋势。本文在分析家庭中心早期干预模式核心理念及主要优势的基础上,对我国听障儿童早期干预工作现状进行了分析,提出将家庭中心康复模式与机构康复模式结合,构建早期家庭康复指导工作模式,介绍了家庭康复指导工作模式的工作构架及工作流程。     

Polymorphisms in programmed death-1 gene are not associated with chronic HBV infection in Chinese patients

AIM:To investigate the association between the programmed death-1(PD-1) polymorphisms and genetic susceptibility of chronic hepatitis B virus(HBV) infection in Chinese patients.METHODS:Two single nucleotide polymorphisms(SNPs),PD-1.1 G > A and PD-1.2 G > A,were genotyped in 539 patients with chronic HBV infection and 353 other family members(HbsAg-) from 256 nuclear families using polymerase chain reactiorestriction fragment length polymorphisms assay.The associations between PD-1 polymorphisms and genetic susceptibilityof chronic HBV infection were analyzed usng the familybased association analysis method.RESULTS:No association or linkage was detected among 539 patients.Univariate(single-marker) familybased association tests demonstrated that PD-1 genotypes,alleles and transmitted haplotypes are not associated with chronic HBV infection(all with P value more than 0.05).Transmission/disequilibrium test and sibship disequilibrium test analysis showed no excess of the alleles from heterozygous parents to affected offspring(P = 0.688880,P = 1.000000 respectively).CONCLUSION:The data demonstrated that PD-1.1 and PD-1.2 polymorphisms are not associated with chronic HBV infection in Chinese patients.     

Association study of GSK3 gene polymorphisms with schizophrenia and clozapine response

RATIONALE: A number of human and animal studies implicate GSK3 in the pathophysiology and genetics of schizophrenia. In general, the data suggest that phosphorylation levels of GSK3beta are reduced in schizophrenia, resulting in increased GSK3beta activity. Since GSK3beta regulation is altered in schizophrenia, polymorphic variation in this gene may affect susceptibility to schizophrenia or treatment response. OBJECTIVE: To analyze GSK3beta genetic variants for association with schizophrenia and clozapine response. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We examined GSK3beta markers in 185 matched case-control subjects, 85 small nuclear families, and 150 schizophrenia patients treated with clozapine for 6 months. RESULTS: Three markers (rs7624540, rs4072520, and rs6779828) showed genotypic association with schizophrenia in the case-control sample. We did not observe any family and clozapine response association with a specific allele, genotype, or haplotype. CONCLUSIONS: Our results suggest that GSK3beta polymorphisms might be involved in schizophrenia risk but do not appear to play a significant role in clozapine response.     

Family based association of GRIN2A and GRIN2B with Korean autism spectrum disorders

N-Methyl-d-aspartate (NMDA) receptor, one of the glutamate receptors, has a role in the regulation of synaptic activity. It functions as an ion channel in the central nervous system and its inappropriate activation has been implicated in several neurological conditions. To test the association between candidate genes related with NMDA receptors and autism spectrum disorders (ASDs), we examined single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) for GRIN2A and GRIN2B by using the family-based association test (FBAT) in 151 Korean trios. There was a statistically significant associations between ASDs and haplotypes in GRIN2B (bi-allelic mode additive model P-value=0.003; FDR P-value=0.012). This study supports a possible role of GRIN2B as a candidate gene for the etiology of ASDs.     

A family-based association study of dopamine receptor D4 and mental retardation in Qinba region of China

Dopamine receptor D4 (DRD4) is activated by the neurotransmitter dopamine and links to many neurological and psychiatric conditions because of its close relationship with prefrontal cortex and other important brain regions. To explore the possibility that genetic variants of DRD4 gene predispose to children with mental retardation (MR), five target SNPs of DRD4 were selected and genotyped in the samples of 163 MR pedigrees from the Qinba region of China. Two SNPs (rs752306 and rs3758653) showed weak association with MR (the P values were 0.022 and 0.015 for dominant model, and 0.027 and 0.015 for recessive model, respectively). Although they did not bear the multiple testing corrections, the haplotype which contained rs3758653 exhibited a significant association with MR (global P values were 0.018 for dominant model and 0.028 for recessive model, respectively). The in silico analysis also indicated that rs752306 and rs3758653 would be biologically meaningful SNPs. Therefore, the present study suggested that the genetic variants of DRD4 gene may play an important role in human MR. Further investigations, such as confirmation with other independent samples and functional studies, may elucidate their effect on gene expression and MR susceptibility.