Choose your friends wisely: their genes may affect your health, study finds – GLOBAL

August 5, 2024

Turns out your parent’s advice about choosing high school friends wisely was spot on.

A new study has found that your friends’ genetic traits can impact your own risk of developing mental health issues and substance use disorders.

The study published Wednesday in the American Journal of Psychiatry found that a peer’s genetic predispositions for psychiatric and substance use disorders are linked with an individual’s own risk of developing the same disorders in young adulthood.

“Certainly, this is something that as parents, when you think, ‘Who is my kid affiliating with?’ Those concerns are very valid,” said Jessica Salvatore, lead author and associate professor of psychiatry at the Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, in New Brunswick, N.J.

Read more: https://globalnews.ca/news/10665651/genetics-friends-mental-health-substance-abuse-study/