Yahoo Lifestyle How Your High School BFF Could Affect Your Health Decades Later
It’s a fact of life: Some friendships come and go. But while each can have some level of influence on who you become as a person, new research finds that the genetic makeup of your teenage buddies may influence how healthy you are as an adult.
The study, which was published on August in the American Journal of Psychiatry, specifically found that the genes of your teenage friends can impact your own risk of developing drug and alcohol use disorders, anxiety, and depression. Basically, these friends are really important to your health down the road.
The idea for the research actually came from rodent studies, according to lead study author Jessica Salvatore, PhD, an associate professor in the department of psychiatry and director of the Genes, Environments, and Neurodevelopment in Addictions program at Rutgers University’s Robert Wood Johnson Medical School. Those studies found that the genetic makeup of a “cage-mate” influenced the behavior and health of some rodents. Turns out, it can have a similar effect in humans.
Okay, but why? Here’s the deal.
Meet the expert: Jessica Salvatore, PhD, is an associate professor in the department of psychiatry and director of the Genes, Environments, and Neurodevelopment in Addictions program at Rutgers University’s Robert Wood Johnson Medical School.
What did the study find?
For the study, Salvatore and other researchers analyzed a database of more than 1.5 million people born in Sweden between 1980 and 1998. They also looked at medical, pharmacy, and legal registries that documented substance use and mental health disorders for the same people as adults.
The researchers then analyzed participants’ peers' genetic risk scores based on family history, specifically looking at substance abuse, major depression, and anxiety disorder in adulthood.
Ultimately, the researchers found that, if your friends have a genetic predisposition toward developing a substance use or psychiatric disorder, it could also raise your risk of developing those conditions.
Were the results statistically significant?
Yup, the results were statistically significant, although they varied by condition and age. The researchers specifically found that the effects were the strongest in people between the ages of 16 and 19.
The effects were also stronger for drug use disorder and alcohol use disorder than for major depression and anxiety disorder (although there was still a link in the latter two).
“This study was conducted in Sweden, which, of course, is different in several ways from the U.S.,” Salvatore tells Women's Health. But she says that there are other studies that show social genetic effects in U.S.-based populations, which suggests that these findings can apply to Americans, too.
Does this affect my friendships?
Basically, yeah. Just like your friends can influence you with their genetics, you can also influence them.
But…why? “There are many possible mechanisms through which a friend's genotype might influence one's own risk for substance use and psychiatric disorders,” Salvatore says. “Friends can reinforce certain behaviors—for example, excessively ruminating over problem, or encouraging misbehavior—that in turn increase risk for subsequent disorders.”
Essentially, if your friends have risky behaviors around drugs and alcohol as a teen, you’re more likely to do the same—and that can set you down a path for health issues that linger well into adulthood.
Ultimately, Salvatore stresses that friendships matter, even from your teens. “Peers have long-lasting influences on our health,” she says.
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