Alcohol dependence is a serious psychiatric disorder in which an individual is characterized as having harmful consequences of repeated or compulsive alcohol use, and (sometimes) physiological dependence on alcohol (i.e., tolerance and/or symptoms of withdrawal) [71], [72]. During 2001–2005, excessive alcohol use contributed to about 79,000 deaths and 2.3 million years of potential life lost in the United States [73]. Excessive alcohol consumption, the third leading cause of preventable death in the United States, can cause damage to the central and peripheral nervous system, and to nearly every organ system in the body [74], [75]. It is reported that alcohol dependence affects about 12% of American adults across their lifetime [76]. As a complex disease, alcohol dependence can be influenced by various factors such as genetic susceptibility, environmental influences and interactions among genes or between genes and environment.
