Researchers at Brown University have identified a genetic variant that increases the risk for alcoholism in adolescence. Previous research has found that the same gene tended to appear in adult alcoholics.

Dr. Robert Miranda, an assistant professor of psychiatry and the author of the study, said the gene variant may enhance how teenagers feel when they drink, which partly explains why they are more at risk for alcohol-related problems. However, the gene does not cause alcohol-related problems, and both Dr. Miranda and his co-author, Professor Valerie Knopik, said that the disease appears to be a complex interaction between many genetic and environmental factors.

"The candidate gene is just one piece of tens, of hundreds, of thousands of genes that influence the actions of adolescents," said Dr. Knopik.

The study appeared in the journal Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research.

Labels: alcohol_abuse, genetics

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A study from the University of Connecticut School of Medicine examined the link between depression and alcoholism, and found that it the disorders develop differently in men and women. Women tend to drink and become alcoholic because they are depressed, while men tend to develop depression after becoming alcoholics.

After studying more than 5,000 adults over age 30, the researchers concluded that genetic precursors to mood disorders may explain why alcoholism runs in certain families.

"Our study suggests that familial factors that underlie mood-related drinking motives are the same factors that contribute to the overlapping familial risk for mood disorders and alcoholism," said UC professor Victor Hasselbrock, a co-author of the study.

Depressive disorders have been increasing every year since 1915. They affect nine percent of women and five percent of men. In young people, adolescent depression has been associated with an increased risk of eating disorders, substance abuse, suicidal ideation, and a host of other concerns.

Labels: alcoholism, depression, genetics

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Forty percent of East Asians, including Chinese, Korean, and Japanese people, flush and feel nauseated when they drink alcohol. The reason is a variant in the ALDH2 gene. People who experience "Asian flush" are at higher risk for cancer of the esophagus, one of the deadliest cancers. Only 16% live beyond five years after diagnosis.

• When people who do not have the variant drink, their bodies release an enzyme that breaks ethanol down into a carcinogen, which in turn breaks down into acetate, making the carcinogen harmless.
• Those with the variant do not release the chemical necessary to render the carcinogen harmless so it builds up into their bodies, and they experience nausea, flushing, and heart palpitations.
• This reaction usually discourages them from drinking alcohol. However, many young Asians with the gene try to get around the reaction by taking anti-histamines or other drugs.

"Some people talk about Asian flush as an embarrassing thing," said Philip Brooks, a molecular neurobiologist at the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism. "Our point is that it's not just embarrassing. There is a real risk here. ... It increases your risk of esophageal cancer for the same amount of alcohol consumed, compared to someone who is able to fully metabolize the acetaldehyde."

Labels: genetics

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MicMice who have a certain gene variant are extra-sensitive to alcohol, according to a study in the journal PLos Genetics.

Dr. David Speca and his colleagues at the University of California in San Francisco nicknamed these mice "Lightweights" because when they inject the animals with alcohol, "they were knocked out for far longer than normal mice." Mice with the variant consume more alcohol than normal mice when offered a choice between alcohol or water.

Studies of human twins indicate that there is a genetic component to alcoholism in humans.
 

Labels: alcoholism, genetics

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