Evidence map›Paper›PMID 41622852›Full record

ArticlePsychological medicine2026

Education shares distinct genetic influences with substance use and disorder.

Christal N Davis, Yousef Khan, Zachary Piserchia, Joshua C Gray, Henry R Kranzler

Abstract read
In one paragraph

Article in Psychological medicine, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.

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0citing papers in PubMed
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1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

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Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

0 citing papers in PubMed.

No citing paper in PubMed yet.

4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

5 authors.

Christal N DavisPerelman School of Medicine, https://ror.org/00b30xv10University of Pennsylvania, USA.ORCID https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3974-5598
Yousef KhanPerelman School of Medicine, https://ror.org/00b30xv10University of Pennsylvania, USA.ORCID https://orcid.org/0009-0002-3093-3947
Zachary Piserchiahttps://ror.org/04r3kq386Uniformed Services University: Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences, USA.
Joshua C Grayhttps://ror.org/04r3kq386Uniformed Services University: Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences, USA.ORCID https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5351-561X
Henry R KranzlerPerelman School of Medicine, https://ror.org/00b30xv10University of Pennsylvania, USA.ORCID https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1018-0450

Funding

BLRD VA I01 BX004820Office of Academic Affiliations, Department of Veterans Affairs Mental Illness Research and Treatment FellowshipVISN 4 Mental Illness Research, Education, and Clinical Center
6 · The paper itself

Abstract

backgroundEducational attainment (EA), which comprises cognitive (CogEA) and noncognitive (NonCogEA) components, is positively genetically correlated with alcohol and cannabis use but negatively correlated with alcohol and cannabis use disorders (AUD and CUD). These paradoxical associations suggest that shared genetic influences with EA may differ by level of substance involvement.

methodsTo test this, we examined the shared genetic architecture of EA, CogEA, and NonCogEA with alcohol consumption (AC), AUD, lifetime cannabis use (CanUse), and CUD. We used bivariate causal mixture models, local genetic correlation analyses, and conditional/conjunctional false discovery rate analyses to identify global, regional, and variant-level overlap for EA and substance-related trait pairs.

resultsEA shared 57.57% of causal variants with AC and 62.42% with AUD, while sharing 48.07% of causal variants with CanUse and 84.18% with CUD. Among shared variants for AC, 48.12% had concordant effects with CogEA and 52.86% with NonCogEA. For AUD, 38.40% and 41.02% of causal variants had concordant effects with CogEA and NonCogEA, respectively. CanUse had higher concordance with CogEA (71.42%) and NonCogEA (65.56%) than CUD (37.97% and 42.23%, respectively). Functional enrichment in brain tissues varied across substance use and EA pairs.

conclusionsEA is associated with greater alcohol and cannabis use and lower risk for AUD and CUD, a pattern that reflects both concordant and discordant variant effects. CogEA and NonCogEA show partially distinct patterns, particularly for cannabis-related traits, highlighting the importance of disaggregating EA to clarify the genetic architecture underlying its paradoxical associations with substance-related traits.

Indexed as

Alcohol DrinkingAlcoholismEducational StatusMarijuana AbuseSubstance-Related DisordersFemaleGenetic Predisposition to DiseaseHumansMalealcohol usealcohol use disordercannabis usecannabis use disordercognitive traitseducational attainmentgenetic pleiotropynon-cognitive traitspolygenic overlapsubstance use

Identifiers

PMID41622852
PMCPMC12887118

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LicenceCC BY
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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.