Andrew C. Heath, D.Phil.

DEPARTMENT OF Psychiatry
Keywords: substance abuse, development, modeling, psychiatry, quantitative genetics

Our research is focused on understanding genetic and environmental contributions to risk of psychiatric disorder (especially alcoholism and substance abuse, affective disorder, personality disorders, disorders of childhood and adolescence), and to normal behavioral variation (e.g. personality and temperament, smoking and drinking habits). Data from twin pairs and other relatives are used to dissect the joint effects of genes and environment, their covariation and interaction.

Research projects include: theoretical and simulation projects focused on issues of multivariate analysis and the genetic analysis of developmental phenomena; data-analysis projects using large (N>50,000 subjects) twin-family data sets from Australia and the U.S.; data collection using the Missouri Twin Register, a register of all twin pairs born in Missouri from 1968 onwards, focused on attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder and adolescent alcohol and drug problems; and, data collection to study the genetic contribution to risk of alcoholism and other psychiatric disorders, using two large Australian twin cohorts.