Research (27) has documented strong genetic influence on alcohol consumption patterns in general community samples (28), with reports of a high genetic correlation between heaviness of consumption and AD risk (29). Unfortunately, the existing literature cannot exclude the possibility that this association is driven by the influence of AD onset on progression of drinking patterns rather than vice versa, although statistical methods can estimate the genetic correlation between AD risk and consumption with dependence effects on consumption excluded (30). Confirmation of a high genetic correlation between nearly continuous consumption measures and AD risk would suggest that such measures may be useful in the discovery of genes contributing to dependence risk.
