Strategies for identifying genes in which variations contribute to the risk for alcohol dependence have employed linkage analysis or candidate gene approaches (Edenberg and Foroud, 2006). These methods have led to the identification of several genes associated with alcohol dependence, including GABRA2 (Covault et al., 2004; Drgon et al., 2006; Edenberg et al., 2004; Enoch et al., 2008; Enoch et al., 2006; Fehr et al., 2006; Lappalainen et al., 2005; Lind et al., 2008; Soyka et al., 2008), ADH4 (Edenberg and Foroud, 2006; Edenberg et al., 2006; Guindalini et al., 2005; Kuo et al., 2008; Luo et al., 2006; Luo et al., 2005b), GABRG3 (Dick et al., 2004), CHRM2 (Luo et al., 2005a; Wang et al., 2004), NFKB1 (Edenberg et al., 2008b), OPRK1 (Edenberg et al., 2008a; Xuei et al., 2006), PDYN (Xuei et al., 2006), NPY2R (Wetherill et al., 2008), ANKK1/DRD2 (Dick et al., 2007b); CHRNA5 (Wang et al., 2009); GRM8 (Chen et al., 2009), TACR3 (Foroud et al., 2008) and GABRR2 (Xuei et al., 2010). However, the effect of variation in each of these genes is small, and much of the genetic contribution to the risk for alcoholism remains to be discovered.
