Substance use disorders (SUDs) have a widespread impact on society, costing billions of dollars and harming millions of lives each year. SUDSs are currently diagnosed using the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Manual Disorders, fifth edition, which requires that 2 of 11 criteria be endorsed.

Research has identified genetic and environmental influences that contribute to SUD risk. Polygenetic scores (PGS) provide an overall estimate of an individual’s genetic liability and can be used to evaluate risk for SUDs. Regarding environmental factors, childhood adversity is strongly associated with future substance use behaviors. The nature of interaction between these genetic and environmental risk factors is still largely unknown, however. Even less clear is whether specific diagnostic criteria are stronger markers of genetic and environmental risk. If particular criteria are more robustly associated with these risk factors, they could serve as biomarkers for use in clinical care.

In the current study, we examined the extent to which PGS and childhood adversity are associated with three SUDs (opioid, alcohol, and cannabis use disorders) and with specific diagnostic criteria. We also examined potential gene-by-environment interactions.  Results highlight the predictive power of childhood adversity, and reveal that gene-by-environment interactions are more prevalent among opioid use disorder and cannabis use disorder than alcohol use disorder.