In the present study we perform the largest GWAS of self-reported alcohol consumption in 112 117 individuals of European ancestry from the UK Biobank (UKB). We also estimate the SNP-based heritability of alcohol consumption and perform sex-specific analyses to investigate whether the phenotypic differences in alcohol consumption in males and females have a genetic basis. Furthermore, as alcohol consumption is often associated with psychiatric and other diseases and health-related traits, we examined the genetic overlap between alcohol consumption and over 200 disease and behavioural traits. Using a polygenic risk score (PRS) approach we also analysed the amount of variance in self-reported alcohol consumption in a completely independent sample, Generation Scotland: the Scottish Family Health Study (GS) (N=19 858).
