Project title

Genomic epidemiology of addictions and their consequences - national, Nordic and international dimensions.

Though smoking has become rarer in Finland, almost every fifth adult Finn continues to smoke. .I have led a series of studies on the genomic epidemiology of smoking and nicotine dependence, based on analyses of smoking behaviour, nicotine dependence and consequent health outcomes, primarily in the Finnish Twin Cohort (the FinnTwin12 study, older cohort and , the Finnish Family Study of Nicotine Dependence) and national cohorts We have found genetic associations increasing the susceptibility to develop nicotine dependence (as measured by interviews and biomarkers), genes related to smoking cessation, smoking persistence and nicotine metabolism . Recent large gwas studies also demonstrate that there are pleiotropic effects of smoking, in particular with psychiatric conditions. Our epigenetic analyses in Finnish and international data sets have complemented the genetic analyses to identify more of the complex biology of smoking behaviour.