The Relationship Between Undergraduate Gender, Drinking Motives, Alcohol Involvement, and Neuroticism

The onset of problem drinking behaviors for many college undergraduates occurs as they enter a new environment devoid of previous inhibiting factors. For whatever reasons college students choose to drink—and not all of them do—it is imperative to understand both the motives and influences affecting increased alcohol related risks. After conducting a thorough literature review, I propose a research design to test the hypothesis that drinking motives and alcohol involvement are mediated by neuroticism. To support this prediction, I will present a model that considers the impact that subject personality, namely neuroticism, may have in mediating the relationship. Specifically, this differential impact of neuroticism is a product of females’ higher probability to use drinking behavior as a coping mechanism. Further, I hypothesize that males are less likely to report drinking for emotional reasons and as such are less likely to present the mediated effect. Finally, I discuss the limitations inherent to undergraduate survey research on a sensitive topic. This study provides insight into differences in drinking motives that may generate new approaches to alcohol education for college undergraduates

Differences in Undergraduate Drinking Motives and Alcohol Involvement as Influenced by Gender and Neuroticism

College marks the onset of drinking behaviors for many undergraduate students as they enter a new environment devoid of previous inhibiting variables. Whatever the reason college students choose to drink, and not all of them do, it is imperative that we understand the motives and influences that can lead to increased alcohol related risks in college. This study examines the relationship between drinking motives and alcohol involvement in undergraduate students as defined by gender, expanding on previous literature by not only analyzing the effects of a direct relationship between drinking motives and alcohol involvement but also analyzing the impact subject personality, namely neuroticism, may play in mediating and changing the relationship. Utilizing existing data and multiple regression analysis, this study evaluates the influence neuroticism has on alcohol involvement. Mediated path models for male and female subjects are used to test for gender differences in drinking outcome. I hypothesize that female undergraduates will have an increased likelihood of a mediated relationship between neuroticism and drinking outcomes because females are more likely to be neurotic than males. I also hypothesize that males will be less likely to report emotional reasons for drinking and as such will be unlikely to produce the mediated results. This study will provide insight into the gender differences in drinking motive and provide implications for changing the approaches we take to alcohol involvement by gender

Implementation of preemptive DNA sequence–based pharmacogenomics testing across a large academic medical center: The Mayo-Baylor RIGHT 10K Study

The Mayo-Baylor RIGHT 10K Study enabled preemptive, sequence-based pharmacogenomics (PGx)-driven drug prescribing practices in routine clinical care within a large cohort. We also generated the tools and resources necessary for clinical PGx implementation and identified challenges that need to be overcome. Furthermore, we measured the frequency of both common genetic variation for which clinical guidelines already exist and rare variation that could be detected by DNA sequencing, rather than genotyping.Targeted oligonucleotide-capture sequencing of 77 pharmacogenes was performed using DNA from 10,077 consented Mayo Clinic Biobank volunteers. The resulting predicted drug response–related phenotypes for 13 genes, including CYP2D6 and HLA, affecting 21 drug–gene pairs, were deposited preemptively in the Mayo electronic health record.For the 13 pharmacogenes of interest, the genomes of 79% of participants carried clinically actionable variants in 3 or more genes, and DNA sequencing identified an average of 3.3 additional conservatively predicted deleterious variants that would not have been evident using genotyping.Implementation of preemptive rather than reactive and sequence-based rather than genotype-based PGx prescribing revealed nearly universal patient applicability and required integrated institution-wide resources to fully realize individualized drug therapy and to show more efficient use of health care resources