Parsing the Undercontrol-Disinhibition Pathway to Substance Use Disorders: A Multilevel Developmental Problem
- 26 May 2011
- journal article
- Published by Wiley in Child Development Perspectives
- Vol. 5 (4), 248-255
- https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1750-8606.2011.00172.x
Abstract
— A long‐standing and diverse body of evidence has documented the importance of externalizing characteristics as very early etiologic predictors of a pathway to severe alcohol and other drug problems and substance use disorder (SUD). At the same time, much remains unclear about the mechanistic structure of this pathway, including understanding what the defining characteristics are that encompass the diverse behaviors included in the externalizing domain. This article proposes that the core risk phenotype unifying this domain is behavioral undercontrol–disinhibition. It describes the defining features of this phenotype and outlines the mediators, moderators, and developmental course that characterize the pathway from early risk to a SUD endpoint. A brief summary of the neurocognitive and brain functional response systems that underlie the behavioral phenotype emphasizes the operation of two systems in dynamic tension, one an effortful control system, the other an incentive reactivity system.Keywords
This publication has 81 references indexed in Scilit:
- Striatal Dysfunction Marks Preexisting Risk and Medial Prefrontal Dysfunction Is Related to Problem Drinking in Children of AlcoholicsBiological Psychiatry, 2010
- REVIEW: Understanding the construct of impulsivity and its relationship to alcohol use disordersAddiction Biology, 2010
- Dissociable neural representations of future reward magnitude and delay during temporal discountingNeuroImage, 2009
- Trajectories of Childhood Aggression and Inattention/Hyperactivity: Differential Effects on Substance Abuse in AdolescenceJournal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, 2008
- Husbands' SUD is associated with higher levels of co-occurring but not non-co-occurring psychiatric disorders among their wivesAddictive Behaviors, 2008
- Anticipating problem alcohol use developmentally from childhood into middle adulthood: what have we learned?Addiction, 2008
- Adolescent risk factors for adult alcohol use and abuse: stability and change of predictive value across early and middle adulthoodAddiction, 2008
- Characterizing the life stressors of children of alcoholic parents.Journal of Family Psychology, 2008
- Externalizing symptoms among children of alcoholic parents: Entry points for an antisocial pathway to alcoholism.Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 2007
- Gender differences and developmental change in externalizing disorders from late adolescence to early adulthood: A longitudinal twin study.Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 2007