This analysis demonstrates that targeted candidate gene studies and GWA studies each provide important information and studying the convergence of these two experimental designs has the potential to advance understanding of the etiology of alcohol dependence and more generally complex diseases. While GWA studies provide important information about the genetic contribution of common variants to complex diseases across populations, hypothesis driven candidate gene studies are also important to assess variants of lesser significance that may be missed because of the strict p value thresholds required for the large number of comparisons in GWA studies. Incorporating knowledge from both GWA and candidate gene studies will help clarify the role of genetics in complex disease and guide future research.
