As noted above, the majority of prior pharmacogenetic studies examining the efficacy of FDA-approved and non-approved treatments for AUD have largely included participants of European ancestry (for review, see8). However, the existing health disparities in AUD treatment underscore the need to advance research in pharmacogenetic studies of treatments for AUD. Given that the frequency of alleles for many of the genes implicated in AUD differs by ancestry,19 and that the subjective effects of alcohol and alcohol metabolism are influenced by genetic variation of these loci,20–22 it is critical to understand how treatments for AUD interact with candidate genes across individuals of different ancestries. The following section reviews pharmacogenetic studies of AUD treatment in individuals of European, East Asian, African, and American Indian/Alaska Native ancestry (Table 1).
