Enoch and colleagues (1999) have reported that an alpha variant, namely low voltage alpha (LVA), is associated with a subtype of alcoholism that co-occurs with anxiety disorder. Recently, these authors found that among females, LVA is associated with a genetic variant that leads to low activity in catechol-o-methyltransferase (COMT), the enzyme that metabolizes the brain chemicals (i.e., neurotransmitters) dopamine and norepinephrine (NE). The authors hypothesize that the effect of altered NE levels on activity in the thalamus (a communication center in the brain) may partly explain the connections between LVA, anxiety, and alcoholism (Enoch et al. 2003).
