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Updated: May 17, 2026

Murine Drinking Models in the Development of Pharmacotherapies for Alcoholism: Drinking in the Dark and Two-bottle Choice
Published on: January 7, 2019
Genes contributing to the development of alcoholism: an overview
1Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology and the Department of Medical and Molecular Genetics, Indiana University School of Medicine, Indianapolis, Indiana.
Abstract:
Genetic factors (i.e., variations in specific genes) account for a substantial portion of the risk for alcoholism. However, identifying those genes and the specific variations involved is challenging. Researchers have used both case-control and family studies to identify genes related to alcoholism risk. In addition, different strategies such as candidate gene analyses and genome-wide association studies have been used. The strongest effects have been found for specific variants of genes that encode two enzymes involved in alcohol metabolism-alcohol dehydrogenase and aldehyde dehydrogenase. Accumulating evidence indicates that variations in numerous other genes have smaller but measurable effects.
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