9/2/25 Ali Sloan: Nicotine use and Psychoticism: A Longitudinal Co-Twin Control Analysis
Clinical brown bag
Ali Sloan
Graduate Student
Date: Tuesday, September 2, 2025
Time: 12:00- 1:00pm
Location: 316 Wilson Hall
Nicotine use and Psychoticism: A Longitudinal Co-Twin Control Analysis
While nicotine use has been linked to increased psychosis risk in observational studies, these associations may reflect confounding by shared genetic and environmental factors rather than causal effects. We applied twin modeling approaches to data from two longitudinal community twin samples. Associations between adolescent nicotine use and adult psychoticism largely reflected shared familial liability, whereas contemporaneous adult nicotine use showed robust within-pair effects with little evidence of reverse causation, suggesting potential short-term causal influences. These findings suggest that prevention efforts should target shared risk factors underlying both traits, while smoking cessation interventions may yield more proximal mental health benefits in adulthood.