As a result of the completion of the draft of the sequence of the entire human genome (Lander et al. 2001), investigators can anticipate rapid advances in ongoing efforts to identify genes that contribute to the risk of alcohol dependence. As progress in such efforts is made, it will become an urgent priority to conduct molecular epidemiological studies to investigate the effects of specific genetic risk factors as well as their interactions with other genetic and environmental risk factors and to determine how these interactions affect the risk of alcohol dependence in the general population.
