It is pretty well understood that high-stress environments and trauma are linked to alcohol use disorder, so appropriate therapy to manage these mental and behavioral conditions is extremely important. According to the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA), a person’s genetic makeup accounts for roughly half of their risk for developing an AUD. Only about 50 percent of genetics is responsible for the risk of developing AUD. Psychological, social, and environmental factors also influence the likelihood of developing the addiction. Linkage studies are limited in terms of their spatial resolution, and thus, association studies that measure differences in allele frequencies between ‘case’ and ‘control’ populations were also pursued.

• A comprehensive review by the University of Cambridge, which analyzed 12 studies involving twins and adopted children, found that genetics accounts for about half of the risk for alcoholism.
• For many people struggling with alcoholism, the path to their addiction has most likely been a complicated and complex journey filled with social influences, biological factors and familial components.
• Alcohol use disorder has become a prevalent problem that affects even the youth.
• Family attitudes towards alcohol, early alcohol exposure, and individual choices shape the addiction risk, intersecting with genetic factors.

As one 2015 article in Nature points out, researchers have not been able to identify a single gene that determines whether or not you develop an addiction. Understanding how those innate biological forces and learning environments influenced your current level of addiction is imperative to overcoming alcoholism and beginning your trek toward sustained sobriety and a happier state of being. Research shows that genetics have somewhere between a 40% and 60% influence on addiction. There is evidence that can you inherit alcoholism heavy episodic (binge) drinking, which results in
exposure of tissues to high levels of alcohol, is particularly harmful81, 87, 88. Binge drinking
is generally defined as a man consuming 5 standard drinks within 2 hours; women are typically smaller and have a lower percentage of body water, so 4 standard
drinks can reach similar alcohol levels. A standard drink is defined in the US as 12
ounces of beer, 5 ounces of wine or 1.5 ounces of spirits, all of which approximate
14 g of pure ethanol).

Frequent Alcohol Consumption Over A Long Period

For many people struggling with alcoholism, the path to their addiction has most likely been a complicated and complex journey filled with social influences, biological factors and familial components. Thinking of addiction as genetic begins with understanding that addiction is a chronic relapsing brain disorder. “In many ways, it’s no different than having a family history with heart disease or diabetes,” says Dr. Anand. About half of your susceptibility to developing a substance use disorder (SUD) can be hereditary. Genetics can mark you as more prone to use alcohol, tobacco products or drugs such as cocaine, heroin and opioids. Researchers have identified an alcohol tolerance gene that makes a person more likely to abuse alcohol.

In addition, NIAAA funds investigators’ research in this important field, and also has an in-house research emphasis on the interaction of genes and the environment. NIAAA is committed to learning more about how genes affect AUD so that treatment—and prevention efforts—can continue to be developed and improved. The environment also affects how genes are expressed, so exposure to stress or frequent drinking can alter gene expression in the brain and make alcoholism more likely. Scientists have found at least 772 genes in the amygdala that are altered by alcohol use, and some of these genes may make the person more vulnerable to developing an addiction. When the person drinks alcohol, for example, they may feel relaxed and happy compared to the stress they feel when they are sober.

Tips to Stop the Family Cycle

But substance abuse isn’t determined only by the genes you inherit from your parents. They are essential in influencing the brain’s function and response to addictive substances like alcohol. Certain genetic variations, such as cytochrome enzymes in the liver, can also influence how quickly a person metabolizes drugs. Your genetic risk refers to the likelihood that specific genes or genetic variants passed down to you will lead to a particular condition. A review of studies from 2020, which looked at a genome-wide analysis of more than 435,000 people, found 29 different genetic variants that increased the risk of problematic drinking.

Evidence for the region on chromosome 2 increased with the additional markers in the initial sample, but the replication sample provided no additional evidence for alcoholism susceptibility genes in this chromosomal region. Conversely, the strongest evidence in the replication sample for a region containing genes affecting the risk for alcoholism was on chromosome 3, which had shown no evidence of being linked with alcoholism in the initial sample. To date, GWAS have
focused on common variants, with allele frequencies of 5% or higher. Most GWAS are case-control studies or studies of quantitative traits in
unrelated subjects, but family-based GWAS provide another approach. GWAS are
beginning to yield robust findings, although the experience in many diseases is
that very large numbers of subjects will be needed. To date, individual GWAS
studies on alcohol dependence and related phenotypes have been relatively modest
in size, and most do not reach genome-wide significance.

What Percentage of Someone’s Genetic Background May Contribute to Alcohol Dependency?

Tolerance means you’ll need more alcohol to feel the same effects you used to feel with less. Many people with AUD do recover, but setbacks are common among people in treatment. Behavioral therapies can help people develop skills to avoid and overcome triggers, such as stress, that might lead to drinking. Medications also can help deter drinking during times when individuals may be at greater risk of a return to drinking (e.g., divorce, death of a family member).

• The primary COGA definition of being affected with alcoholism requires a person to meet both DSM–III–R criteria for alcohol dependence and the Feighner criteria (Feighner et al. 1972) for definite alcoholism.
• A review of studies from 2020, which looked at a genome-wide analysis of more than 435,000 people, found 29 different genetic variants that increased the risk of problematic drinking.
• An experiment using rats at Linköping University in Sweden discovered that those with reduced expression of the gene GAT-3 become addicted to alcohol.
• Studies involving families, twins, and adopted individuals suggest a hereditary component that contributes to vulnerability.

Like many other complex traits, alcoholism appears to be clinically and etiologicaly hetrogenous[13]. This implies that there might be several steps and intermediate conditions in the development of AUD. Information about the underlying genetic factors that influence risk to AUD can be derived from multiple levels of AUD including amounts of drinks (Alcohol consumption), severity and symptoms of alcohol abuse and dependence. Commonly, genome wide association studies (GWAS) of alcoholism have focused on phenotypes based on the Diagnostic & Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM)[14]. In the 4th edition of the DSM (DSM-IV), alcohol dependence (AD) and abuse were considered as mutually exclusive diagnoses that together made up AUDs.