A meta-analysis of family and adoption studies reported an “upper limit” of 30–36% for the heritability of alcohol misuse, whereas another meta-analysis reported a heritability point estimate of 50% for AUD, and a study correcting for measurement errors reported an estimate of 71% heritability for men [13–15]. Despite these varying estimates, it seems that most would agree there is substantial heritability in AUD. PDs have also been shown to be influenced by genetic factors, with heritability estimates ranging from 21% to 77% [16], meaning that associations between AUD and PDs may be confounded by overlapping genetic background. Especially Antisocial (ASPD) and Borderline (BPD) Personality Disorders have been found to be associated with alcohol use problems [17–20]. The heritable variation of ASPD and BPD overlap with each other and also with alcohol use problems [21–24]. The heritable variation in these PDs also overlap with broad dimensions of personality disorders in other emerging models [25]. However, broad personality dimensions typically fail to capture all genetic and outcome-predictive variance available at the criterion level [26–30].
