Nearly all GWAS studies to date have been only modestly powered due to sample sizes that are in the hundreds or a few thousand. As a result, most have detected associations that do not meet stringent genome-wide thresholds. A few have attained genome-wide significance thresholds, but even among these, there has been little overlap in the genes found to be associated with alcohol dependence or alcohol related phenotypes. We highlight a few studies and results that have been reported that utilize key alcohol-related phenotypes and which illustrate several points. Rietschel and Treutlein have recently published a comprehensive review of GWAS studies on alcoholism64.
