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Published on: April 15, 2015
Association of the dopamine transporter gene with alcoholism
Michael D Köhnke1, Anil Batra, Werner Kolb
1University Hospital of Psychiatry, Osianderstrasse 24, 72076 Tübingen, Germany. michael.koehnke@med.uni-tuebingen.de
Aims:
It was investigated whether the allele A9 of the dopamine transporter gene (DAT1; SLC6A3) is associated with alcoholism, delirium tremens (DT), alcohol withdrawal seizures (AWS), or the daily alcohol intake.
Methods:
A group of 102 healthy subjects and 216 alcoholics, including 97 patients with a history of mild withdrawal symptoms, 65 with a history of AWS and 83 with a history of DT were genotyped and personal data were achieved for statistical evaluation in a case-control design.
Results:
The frequency of individuals carrying the allele A9 [f(A9+)] was significantly higher (P = 0.01) in the group of alcoholics [f(A9+) = 0.48] compared with healthy controls [f(A9+) = 0.32]. There was no significant association of the allele A9 with severe withdrawal symptoms or the daily amount of alcohol consumed.
Conclusions:
Our results reveal that the allele A9 is strongly associated with alcoholism but not with withdrawal symptoms or daily alcohol intake.
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