Studies using similar methodologies among groups at lower risk for alcoholism have provided additional support for the idea that individual sensitivity to alcohol might also mediate protection from developing alcoholism. Individuals of Asian heritage, who have mutations in the aldehyde dehydrogenase gene (ALDH2) [50-53], and individuals of Jewish decent [54], two groups with low rates of alcoholism, were found to have more intense, although not necessarily more negative, responses to alcohol than matched control subjects of average alcoholism risk.
