This is the first study reporting the association of SNPs and haplotypes within the GABRA2 region with subjective responses to alcohol using an oral alcohol challenge. The most consistent finding in this study was that carriers of the minor alleles for SNPs rs279858, rs279844, rs279845, rs279826, rs279828 and rs279836 reported lower mean “Negative” alcohol effects scores than individuals homozygous for the common allele. Furthermore, haplotype effects of block 1, which contains the aforementioned SNPs, showed concordant results. The importance of these observations is that the minor allele for several of the SNPs in which we observed lower “Negative” effects of alcohol have been associated with AD in multiple studies across different samples. This supports evidence that individual differences in subjective responses to alcohol as measured by a laboratory alcohol challenge procedure are related to the risk of developing AUDs (Morean and Corbin, 2010; Quinn and Fromme, 2011). Our findings provide further evidence that genetic variations within the GABRA2 region moderate the subjective responses to alcohol and, thus, may enhance vulnerability to AUDs.
