title: Genes contributing to the development of alcoholism: an overview.
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.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology and the Department of Medical and Molecular Genetics, Indiana University School of Medicine, Indianapolis, Indiana.
authors.forename: Howard J
authors.initials: HJ
authors.lastname: Edenberg
mesh_terms: D000426:Alcohol Dehydrogenase; D000437:Alcoholism / Q000235:genetics; D000444:Aldehyde Dehydrogenase; D020022:Genetic Predisposition to Disease; D055106:Genome-Wide Association Study; D006801:Humans; D012307:Risk Factors
chemical_list: D000426:Alcohol Dehydrogenase; D000444:Aldehyde Dehydrogenase