One of the strengths of our study is that we used an oral alcohol challenge, and achieved a target peak BAC of 100.4 mg/dL 25 minutes following the cumulative alcohol doses, which allowed us to observe subjective responses on both the ascending and descending limbs of the BAC. In addition, given that subjective responses to alcohol have been found to differ by drinking phenotype (i.e., heavy alcohol consumption or persons at increased risk for AD) (Morean and Corbin, 2010; Quinn and Fromme, 2011), we took into account recent drinking behavior in our analysis and adjusted for these variables when they had a significant effect on the subjective response being evaluated. Also, we observed not only SNP, but also haplotype effects on subjective responses to alcohol measured throughout the whole session. Other strengths of the study include the selection of SNPs spanning the GABRA2 region including several SNPs that have been consistently associated with AD (Covault et al., 2004; Covault et al., 2008; Enoch et al., 2009; Fehr et al., 2006; Lappalainen et al., 2005), which allowed for a comprehensive examination
