ArticleDrug and alcohol dependence2018
Oxytocin receptor gene methylation and substance use problems among young African American men.
Article in Drug and alcohol dependence, 2018. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 17 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
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Who cites it
17 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 24 citations in OpenAlex.
- How are social determinants of health integrated into epigenetic research? A systematic review.Social science & medicine (1982) · 2021Pooled it
- A systematic review of childhood maltreatment and DNA methylation: candidate gene and epigenome-wide approaches.Translational psychiatry · 2021Pooled it
- Early life adversity, oxytocin system alterations, and addiction vulnerability: a narrative review.Psychopharmacology · 2026Review
- Risk Modeling and Association Pathways Integrating Psychosocial Factors for Drug Misuse in Adolescents and Young Adults: A Machine Learning Approach.European addiction research · 2026Article
- Epigenetics, Resilience, Protective Factors and Factors Promoting Positive Outcomes: A Scoping Review.International journal of developmental neuroscience : the official journal of the International Society for Developmental Neuroscience · 2025Article
- Striving Towards Equity in Cardiovascular Genomics Research.Current atherosclerosis reports · 2025Review
- An epigenetic candidate-gene association study of parental styles in suicide attempters with substance use disorders.Addiction biology · 2024Article
- Understanding Health Inequalities Through the Lens of Social Epigenetics.Annual review of public health · 2022Review
- Associations between alcohol use and peripheral, genetic, and epigenetic markers of oxytocin in a general sample of young and older adults.Brain and behavior · 2022Article
- Evaluating Methylation of the Oxytocin Receptor Gene and the Oxytocin Intergenic Region.Methods in molecular biology (Clifton, N.J.) · 2022Article
- The Interaction of Trauma Exposure and DNA Methylation on Blood Pressure Among Black Women in the InterGEN Study.Epigenetics insights · 2022Article
- An epigenetic rheostat of experience: DNA methylation ofComprehensive psychoneuroendocrinology · 2021Review
- Examining the differential effects of latent impulsivity factors on substance use outcomes in African American men.Addictive behaviors · 2021Article
- Glucocorticoid Signaling and Epigenetic Alterations in Stress-Related Disorders.International journal of molecular sciences · 2021Review
- Pathways linking childhood trauma to rural, unmarried, African American father involvement through oxytocin receptor gene methylation.Developmental psychology · 2020Article
- Epigenetic modification of the oxytocin receptor gene: implications for autism symptom severity and brain functional connectivity.Neuropsychopharmacology : official publication of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology · 2020Article
- Understanding the Interplay Between Health Disparities and Epigenomics.Frontiers in genetics · 2020Review
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
5 authors at 3 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundStressful or supportive social environments promote biological changes with regulatory implications for future relationships and substance abuse. Recent research suggests links between adverse social environments, prosocial relationships, methylation at the oxytocin receptor gene (OXTR), and substance abuse. The potential for OXTR methylation to act as the mechanism linking social environments to substance abuse has yet to be investigated. We hypothesized that, for young African American men, childhood adversity increases, and supportive, prosocial bonds with parents, peers, partners, and community mentors decrease OXTR methylation levels, which in turn predict increases in substance-related symptoms.
methodsA sample of 358 rural African American men (age 19 at baseline) provided self-report data at three time points separated by 18 months and a genetic specimen at Time 2.
resultsEarly adversity was associated with OXTR methylation indirectly via contemporary prosocial relationships. OXTR methylation was a proximal predictor of changes in substance-related symptoms. We found no evidence for a direct association of self-reported childhood trauma with OXTR methylation status.
conclusionsFindings suggest that OXTR methylation is linked to substance use symptomatology, ostensibly resulting in increased expression of oxytocin (OT) in peripheral and central nervous systems. OXTR may act as a mechanism to explain how prosocial ties deter substance abuse and related problems. Despite conjectures in the literature that early adversity may become physiologically embedded via methylation in the OT system, direct effects were not evident. Rather, early adversity may affect OXTR methylation via influence on contemporary prosocial relationships.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.