As demonstrated in Figure 1, across studies evaluations of alcohol sensitivity can flow from alcohol reaction phenomena in animals, to testing reactions in several types of non-AUD drinkers, using at least four ways to establish reactions by administering alcohol or using retrospective questionnaires, with protocols incorporating any of at least six different sensitivity measures, and at least two outcome timeframes (short term or long term). This pattern of approaches produces a wealth of information about alcohol responses, but creates hundreds of combinations of sensitivity measures that could possibly reflect different sets of genes. This suggests that it might be prudent to evaluate genetic contributors to each major method separately before combining results into a single genetic analysis.
