The researchers, from the university’s Midwest Alcoholism Research Center, say the finding could aid the development of therapies for alcohol dependence by offering suggestions for targeted treatments based on genetic traits and history of exposure to severe stressors.

Scientists estimate that about half the risk for alcoholism is encoded in a person’s genes. The rest comes from environmental factors, such as age at first drink and exposure to extreme stress. Other research has suggested that when the environmental risk factors occur during key periods of brain development, genes and environment working together can increase the likelihood an individual will become alcohol dependent. Child sexual abuse is one of the environmental stressors that can interact with genes to significantly increase the risk for alcohol problems.

But the researchers report in the January issue of Addiction Biology that people with a particular pattern of genetic markers seem to be protected against alcohol problems, even if they were sexually abused as children.

Those who were protected carry a set of genetic variations that scientists call the H2 haplotype. Similar to a blood type, a haplotype is more than just a single genetic mutation. It is a normally occurring pattern of gene variants that are statistically associated with one another so that when scientists find a few genetic markers, they can successfully predict what other genetic variations will occur within a particular region of DNA.

"We looked at how genes and environment interact," says Elliot C. Nelson, M.D., lead author of the study. "Our analysis included both sexual abuse and information about the DNA region that carries the H2 haplotype. People who carry that genetic pattern were protected against the risks for alcohol consumption and alcohol dependence typically associated with sexual abuse."

Other sexual abuse victims in the study had the alternate genetic pattern known as the H1 haplotype. Those individuals had three times the risk of heavy drinking and alcohol dependence as those who had not been sexually abused.

"They drank much more alcohol and had a significantly greater risk for problems," says Nelson, an associate professor of psychiatry. "But abuse victims with the H2 haplotype seemed to be completely protected against those risks."

Nelson’s team studied data from more than 1,100 people in 476 Australian families who participated in the Nicotine Addiction Genetics project. Originally, that study was set up to learn about nicotine addiction, but investigators also looked at related problems, including how much alcohol people drank and whether they met the diagnostic criteria for alcohol dependence.

Study subjects also were asked about sexual abuse in childhood. A total of 121 women and 35 men reported a history of sexual abuse beginning at around age 11. Nelson’s group also had access to DNA samples from those evaluated in this study.
By identifying a handful of specific sites in the genome, it’s possible to classify a person as having either the H1 or the H2 haplotype. One of the genes in the DNA region included in H1 and H2 is called corticotropin releasing hormone receptor type 1 (CRHR1). Nelson’s group is focusing on that gene, which research in animals has implicated in risk for alcohol dependence.

Many past studies have focused on genes related to alcohol metabolism, but CRHR1 is not a metabolism gene. Nelson says it appears from animal studies, however, that the gene may be involved in risks associated with the effects of environmental stress. In the case of humans, he suspects variants of the gene may play a role in protecting against stresses caused by child sexual abuse.

"There are many different ways an individual can become alcoholic, some involving heavy genetic risks, some involving specific environmental factors, such as exposure to peers who drink heavily," Nelson says. "This particular pathway involving CRHR1 is interesting because it seems to play an extremely important role in animal models of alcohol consumption and dependence."

He says better understanding of how the gene works may help scientists understand the process by which people become alcoholics. As they attempt to clarify the possible role of the CRHR1 gene in protecting sexual abuse survivors from alcohol dependence, Nelson says it may be interesting to look at other severe environmental stressors that trigger alcohol use to see whether people with the H2 variation also are protected from those forms of risk.

In addition, he says drugs have been developed that block CRHR1 receptors. If it turns out that humans are responding to the same stressors and reacting via the same genetic pathway that animals do, Nelson says some of those drugs may be able to help people who are alcoholic using the same pathway that protects people with the H2 haplotype.

This study was supported by the National Institute on Drug Abuse and the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism of the National Institutes of Health, the ABMRF/Foundation for Alcohol Research and the Australian NHMRC Fellowship Scheme.

Research Examines Link between Sexual Abuse and Alcohol Dependence is a post from: Drug Addiction Treatment

Here are the steps you need to take if you are a victim of one of these date rape drugs:

Get Someplace Safe

If you know or suspect that you have been drugged and assaulted, the first thing you should do is get yourself to someplace safe. Depending on the circumstances under which the sexual assault took place, your assaulter may or may not still be present. Exercise caution and don’t put yourself in any further jeopardy if the assaulter is still nearby. As soon as you can, leave that location and seek help.

If you can’t get away, try to use your cell phone to call 911 for emergency response by police. Even if you don’t know the address where you’ve been taken, you can leave the cell phone on and police can track your signal and get to you. Use discretion, and try to remain calm.

If You Are Alone

Your sexual attacker may have left you alone, either at your place or car or somewhere else. It’s important that you do not pick up or clean anything. Evidence may be in the sheets, towels, linens or surroundings. This evidence may prove crucial in helping to track down the perpetrators.

If You Don’t Remember

Often a victim of a date rape drug will have no memory, or only fleeting memories, of what happened. You may not be aware an attack occurred until 8 to 12 hours afterward. You may feel like you have had sex without knowing that you did. Your clothes may be torn or dirty. You may wake up feeling drugged and hung over, even though you don’t remember having anything or very little to drink. You feel drunk, even though you know you didn’t have any alcohol. Or, you do remember having one drink, but nothing after that.

These are all signs that you may have been the victim of a sexual assault as a result of being slipped a date rape drug.

Do Not Shower or Change Clothes

Although you’ll probably feel dirty, ashamed and confused, and all you want to do is scrub yourself clean, it’s critical that you do not bathe, shower, douche or even change clothes. The evidence may be on and in your body, so you don’t want to destroy it.

Do Not Eat or Drink

It’s also important that you do not eat or drink anything. Don’t even brush your teeth or wash your hands.

If You Have to Urinate

After such an ordeal, you may feel the need to go to the bathroom to urinate. If this is absolutely necessary, collect a specimen. You can use a jar, wide-mouth bottle, even a zip-lock baggie or a paper cup you seal with Saran wrap. Take this urine sample with you to your private doctor, to a clinic or hospital emergency room. Rohypnol stays in the body for several hours, and can be detected in urine for up to 72 hours after being taken. GHB leaves the body within 12 hours.

Go To an Emergency Room, Clinic or Private Doctor

You need immediate treatment following sexual assault as a result of a date rape drug. This means you need to go to see your private doctor, to a clinic or hospital emergency room. Tell the doctor and nurses you believe you’ve been raped. They will use a “date rape kit” to collect evidence.

Ask the examining physician to check for any injuries – both externally (such as bruising, cuts, scrapes, vaginal and anal tears, bleeding, etc.), and internally. Also request the doctor test for pregnancy, sexually transmitted infections. A urine test and blood work is also critical so that the presence of the sedating substances can be detected. If you’ve already collected a urine sample, present this to the doctor.

Contact the Police

If this happened to you, the perpetrators are likely to do it again to someone else. You need to report the assault to the police. Even if the details are fuzzy to you, and they probably are due to the effects of the date rape drugs, you absolutely owe it to yourself and to others to try to have the assaulters apprehended and face the consequences.

Seek Support and Advice from a Rape Crisis Center

Recognize that this is a physically and emotionally traumatic experience that you have undergone. You won’t be able to just shrug it off – even if you think you can. You may be very strong emotionally and suddenly the whole episode will come back and haunt you, causing you sleeplessness, bouts of depression, uncontrollable weeping, and inability to work, go to school, and continue your relationships. You need the support of professionals who can help you through the difficult days of shame, guilt, fear and shock ahead. You need the help of caring individuals, many of whom have experienced rape themselves, to help you heal.

One source is toll-free and available 24/7. Call the National Sexual Assault Hotline at 1-800-656-HOPE. The Hotline is free, the information you provide is confidential, and your privacy is secure. It is from the Rape Abuse and Incest National Network. More than 1,000 trained professionals are available to help you from RAINN-affiliated crisis centers located all across the country. You can also find helpful information on their website at www.rainn.org.

It’s Not Your Fault

The key point to remember in all of this is that you are a victim. It is not your fault that you were sexually assaulted and raped after someone slipped you a date rape drug. But you can heal. And you can get beyond this terrible ordeal.

Victim of a Date Rape Drug? What To Do is a post from: Drug Addiction Treatment