It is important to note that this is not a definitive set of genes regulating these behaviors, as much of the putative remaining polygenic variance remains unaccounted for. Indeed, a consortium specifically interested in alcohol use disorders assembled this specific set. These genes nominated by COGA authors (Aliev et al., 2015) did not emerge exclusively from more rigorous GWAS studies (criterion p < 0.00001), but also included genes with putative evidence from candidate gene studies (criterion p < 0.05). Nevertheless, our results also demonstrate that this set of genes is associated with externalizing behavior and traits in a general sample, rather than one selected for familial risk for alcohol use disorders, as was the COGA sample. Our results provide evidence that these genes may confer risk across the broad spectrum of individual differences in the general population rather than being limited to those with genetic risk for specific clinical manifestations of externalizing. Further work by other consortia, continued GWAS in larger samples, data from analyses using polygenic risk scores (e.g., Salvatore et al., 2015) and bioinformatics work will be necessary
