Ray, Hutchison, and Bryan, 2006; Schuckit & Smith, 1996; Tidey et al., 2008). Second, medications found to operate at the level of endophenotypes, such as craving and subjective responses to alcohol (e.g., Monti & MacKillop, 2007; Monti et al., 2001; Ray & Hutchison, 2007), may ultimately be effective in reducing drinking. In a recent example of this approach, a laboratory study found that aripiprazole increased the sedative effects of alcohol and decreased its euphoric and stimulant effects, those effects are thought to capture the mechanisms of action of Aripiprazole for alcoholism (Kranzler et al., in press). Third, genetic variants appear to underlie the expression of alcohol endophenotypes such as craving (e.g., Hutchison et al., 2002) and subjective responses to alcohol (e.g., Fromme et al., 2004; Ray and Hutchison, 2004; 2007; Schuckit et al. 2004). Fourth, genetic variants associated with alcohol endophenotypes may, in turn, be used to predict responses to pharmacotherapies thought to affect those endophenotypes (Ray & Hutchison, 2004; 2007).
