Common genetic mechanisms in alcoholism and psychiatric disorders: negative evidence from a study of ethnic group patients

Alcoholism in the male relatives of patients with various (nonalcoholic) psychiatric disorders is consistently elevated above population risk. Over the years, this finding has given rise to theories which propose that some forms of alcoholism are attributable to the pleiotropic expression of genes underlying these disorders. This mechanism was tested in the fathers of patients from ethnic groups associated with culturally suppressed alcohol abuse where it was predicted that decreased alcoholism would be substituted for by increased psychiatric disorder. Results, however, failed to support such a mechanism. Other explanations of this elevated alcoholism were considered.