Author: Alex Thompson

Genetics and alcoholism PMC

Meta-analyses, whichcombine results across a number of studies in order to attain the criticalsample sizes needed, are being developed. Genetic, psychological, social and environmental factors can impact how drinking alcohol affects your body and behavior. Theories suggest that for certain people drinking has a different and stronger impact that can lead to alcohol use disorder. The inclusion of data from different ancestral groups in this study cannot and should not be used to assign or categorize variable genetic risk for substance use disorder to specific populations. As genetic information is used to better understand human health and health inequities, expansive and inclusive data collection is essential.

1. If you live in a situation of poverty, for example, or in an area with limited resources, you may be less likely to have access to quality foods, community services, or adequate healthcare.
2. These approacheshave been quite fruitful for some studies and need to be employed in analyses ofalcohol-related traits and phenotypes.
3. However, it was dramatically higher among the twins whose biological fathers were alcoholics, regardless of the presence of alcoholism in their adoptive families.
4. Sign up for free and stay up to date on research advancements, health tips, current health topics, and expertise on managing health.
5. To date, individual GWASstudies on alcohol dependence and related phenotypes have been relatively modestin size, and most do not reach genome-wide significance.

Hugo Bellen, a geneticist at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Texas, said the study “lays the foundation for a genetic approach to dissecting the acute, and possibly the chronic, effects” of alcohol in people. Alcohol use disorder (AUD) often seems to run in families, and we may hear about scientific studies of an “alcoholism gene.” Genetics certainly influence our likelihood of developing AUD, but the story isn’t so simple. The causes of AUD are complex and can involve a variety of factors, including early exposure to alcohol use, peer group pressure, and living with other mental health conditions. According to a review from 2016, genes that promote alcohol metabolism and the production of enzymes, such as alcohol dehydrogenase and aldehyde dehydrogenase, can be protective against AUD.

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Alcohol use disorder (AUD) is a diagnosis once referred to as “alcoholism.” It’s a condition characterized by patterns of excessive alcohol misuse despite negative consequences and major distress in important areas of daily function. Sign up for free and stay up to date on research advancements, health tips, current health topics, and expertise on managing health. Your socioeconomic status is made up of economic and societal factors such as your income, level of education, employment, location of residence, and available resources. The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 5th edition, text revision (DSM-5-TR), a clinical diagnostic guidebook, indicates that AUD often runs in families at a rate of 3–4 times higher compared with the general population. Many factors are involved in the development of AUD, but having a relative, or relatives, living with AUD may account for almost one-half of your individual risk.

According to the DSM-5-TR, the more relatives you have living with AUD and the closer they are to you in relation, the higher your individual genetic risk becomes. †Note that the official names of several ADH genes have been changed, and theliterature has been confused by some groups using non-standard names for some ofthe genes29. But as you continue to drink, you become drowsy and have less control over your actions.

This is of particular concern when you’re taking certain medications that also depress the brain’s function. Researchers at the University of California at San Francisco (UCSF) are using fruit flies to find the genetic causes of alcoholism. According to scientists, drunken drosophila fruit flies behave the same way humans do when they are drunk.

Linkage studies are relatively robust to populationdifferences in allele frequencies (because they test within-family inheritance), andcan find a signal even if different variants in the same gene or region areresponsible for the risk in different families. The drawback to this approach isthat linkage studies find broad regions of the genome, often containing manyhundreds of genes. In many cases, the initial linkage studies were followed by moredetailed genetic analyses employing single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) that weregenotyped at high density across the linked regions. Some of the genes identifiedthrough this approach have been replicated across a number of studies and appear tobe robust genetic findings. Alcohol is widely consumed, but excessive use creates serious physical,psychological and social problems and contributes to many diseases. Alcoholism(alcohol dependence, alcohol use disorders) is a maladaptive pattern ofexcessive drinking leading to serious problems.

According to the 2021 National Survey on Drug Use and Health, AUD affects approximately 29.5 million people in the United States. More than 800,000 of the people affected are children between the ages of 12 and 17 years. Alcohol use disorder (AUD) can have a hereditary component, but not everyone living with AUD has a family history of AUD.

Alcohol metabolism and the risk for AUD

Factors like your environment and ability to handle situations triggering dependency are just as important as genetics. These are things that we can remain mindful of as we continue to develop an understanding of alcoholism on a personal basis. Family, twin, and adoption studies have shown that alcoholism definitely has a genetic component.

There is a growing body of scientific evidence that shows alcoholism has a genetic component. According to the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, children of alcoholics are four times more likely than other children to become alcoholics. Your genetic risk refers to the likelihood that specific genes or genetic variants passed down to you will lead to a particular condition.

What are the protective factors for AUD?

An intervention from loved ones can help some people recognize and accept that they need professional help. If you’re concerned about someone who drinks too much, ask a professional experienced in alcohol treatment for advice on how to approach that person. If you feel that you sometimes drink too much alcohol, or your drinking is causing problems, or if your family is concerned about your drinking, talk with your health care provider.

Extensive study of the alcoholmetabolizing genes has demonstrated their important role in disease risk. Additionalgenes have been identified that have expanded our understanding of the genes andpathways involved; however, the number of findings to date is modest. First and perhaps foremost, most studies ofalcohol-related phenotypes have been small – hundreds or a few thousandsamples. Most robust associations that have been reported in common disease haveemployed tens of thousands of samples and are now beginning to combine severalstudies of these magnitude into even larger meta analyses. The alcohol researchcommunity has begun to form larger consortia for meta-analyses and it is anticipatedthat with the resulting increase in sample size the number of robust associationswill increase. A second approach that will likely benefit the alcohol researchcommunity will be greater examination of pathways or gene sets.

National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA)

1Due to space constraints the present review will use the term AUD to refer to both DSM-5 defined alcohol use disorder and DSM-IV defined alcohol dependence. The latter required the presence of 3+ symptoms out of 7 to meet diagnostic threshold. Despite these advances, the molecular genetic investigation of the AUD diagnosis faces multiple challenges moving forward.

These approacheshave been quite fruitful for some studies and need to be employed in analyses ofalcohol-related traits and phenotypes. Over the next few years, we anticipate theidentification of additional common and rare variants contributing to the risk ofalcohol dependence. Linkage studies are limited in terms of their spatial resolution, and thus, association studies that measure differences in allele frequencies between ‘case’ and ‘control’ populations were also pursued. Early association studies focused on a limited number of variants in or near genes selected a priori for their biological relevance to the trait of interest or physical location in the genome informed by prior linkage results. These inconsistent findings have tempered expectations and investment in both linkage and candidate gene studies.