The four polymorphisms commonly tested in CYP2E1, CYP2E1*5B (c2), CYP2E1*6 (C), CYP2E1*1B (A1), and CYP2E1*1D (1C), have been found to be associated with alcoholism and related disorders in a number of studies. Several of these variants are rare in the Caucasian population (see below). Carriers of the c2 allele of *5B have often been found to have increased risk for alcoholic liver disease (Grove et al., 1998) possibly due to the increased tendency to consume excessive amounts of alcohol (Pirmohamed et al., 1995). The C allele of *6 was shown to be associated with the predisposition for alcoholism in Japanese men (Iwahashi et al., 1998). The A1 allele of *1B was found to have a significantly higher allele frequency in alcoholics than in nonalcoholic individuals from a Mexican Indians population (Montano Loza et al., 2006). The 1D variant allele was shown to be associated with elevated CYP2E1 activity after alcohol consumption (McCarver et al., 1998). For every association found with CYP2E1 variants, a number of studies found no association between the variants and alcohol consumption or risk of alcoholism which
