In this paper, we attempt to provide a “proof of principle” for our method by applying it to genotype data from 370 SNPs in 48 putative candidate genes obtained from a sample of individuals with alcohol dependence (AD) and population controls. A number of prior studies have examined risk loci for AD and their results may serve as a test of our approach. An unresolved issue is whether common complex disorders reflect the effects of a few common variants of several genes or the dramatic effects of many rare variants. Here we propose a method to address, from a gene set perspective, the common disease/common variant (CDCV) model.
