at historically higher risk for alcoholism, such as Native American or Korean, need to consume larger amounts of alcohol to become intoxicated (Garcia-Andrade et al., 1997; Luczak et al., 2002; Wall et al., 1999) compared to those with lower risk (Monteiro et al., 1991) who exhibit a more intense level of response to alcohol. Several studies have implicated genes showing association with the level of response to alcohol (GABA, 5-HT, and KCNMA1) (Barr et al., 2003; Dick et al., 2006; Schuckit et al., 2005). The evidence proving association for these genes is weak by current standards that have been developed as a consequence from the technological advances enabling genome-wide association studies. Even though these genes may affect the level of response to alcohol to some degree, it is possible that these reported associations reflect the typical reporting bias seen in candidate gene studies.
