Because the present study is a large, population-based study, we were able to examine alcohol abuse and alcohol dependence separately. This is of particular interest as twin studies, in contrast to the three studies mentioned in the previous paragraph, have shown that the inherited contribution to alcoholism in women is either no greater (Heath et al., 1997; Kendler et al., 1995) or is less than it is in men (McGue et al., 1996). We found no parental history of alcoholism by gender interaction in the odds for alcohol dependence in this sample. However, in the subset of alcohol dependence without abuse (Hasin and Grant, 2004), maternal alcoholism interacted with offspring gender reflecting increased odds in women compared to men. Hence, in what may be two ends of the spectrum of alcohol use disorders, women appear to be disproportionately affected by alcoholism in their mothers.
