Few have investigated the genetic association between PTSD and alcohol-related problems phenotypes using genetic techniques such as linkage disequilibrium score regression (Bulik-Sullivan et al., 2015b), but work by our group found a significant correlation between PTSD and alcohol dependence (AD; rG = 0.35; Sheerin et al., 2020) (rG = 0.28; Bountress et al., 2021) for those of European Ancestry. However, this effect was driven by women, for whom the genetic correlation was moderate and significant, but not for men (Sheerin et al., 2020). Genetic correlation analyses between PTSD and alcohol consumption were also conducted by our group, finding a non-significant association (rG = −0.07; Bountress et al., 2021); another group found near zero genetic correlation between PTSD and the Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test (AUDIT) consumption score subscale (AUDIT-C) (Mallard et al., 2021). Work by our group also found that beyond genetic correlations, using Mendelian Randomization, PTSD exerted a causal effect on AUD, but not alcohol consumption, but that neither alcohol phenotype exerted a causal influence on PTSD (Bountress et al., 2021). Additionally, genetic correlations between consumption and problems phenotypes
