PWS Visser 2018-2019

smoking addiction Page 12
3.2 INTERVIEW WITH PROF. DR. VERWEIJ
What percentage of the people
with an addiction gene get an
addiction?
That is hard to say, suppose there are a
thousand genes that play a role, and if
you have all those bad variants of those
genes then the chances are much higher
than when you do not have all those bad
variants. But usually you do not have all
those bad genes, you also do not have
zero of those bad genes; it is always
somewhere in between. In addition, you
have the environmental factors. If you
grow up in a family where no one
smokes and you go to a school where no
one smokes while you have all those bad
variants of those genes, you might have
a bigger risk of becoming addicted
when looking at the heritable side, but
your environment does not trigger those
genes
and you will not get addicted. Mostly it
is a combination of your DNA and your
environment.
You can look at this by twins; they have
the same DNA, often also the same home
situation but a different social
environment, especially their group of
friends. So even though they have the
same DNA, it does not mean they follow
the same path. Their environment also
plays a very big role.
Do adolescents have a bigger
chance to have a drug addiction
when the start smoking at an early
age?
If you start smoking at an early age,
then yes, you have a bigger chance of
getting addicted to another substance.
People who start at an early age will,
from a genetically point of view, be
more sensitive to other addictions. If
you start with something more innocent
like cannabis, you will say yes to hard
drugs more easily than someone who is
not addicted to something like cannabis.