The course of alcohol use and misuse consists of several stages, each with polygenic and environmental underpinnings. At earlier ages, how much and how often a person drinks often serves as an indicator of their genetic susceptibility to alcohol misuse (Dick et al., 2011; Irons et al., 2015). As an individual progresses towards maladaptive alcohol intake, a unique genetic susceptibility to physiological and psychological impairments related to alcohol misuse may unfold (Kendler et al., 2011). Our goal was to outline the extent to which PRS derived from a discovery GWAS of the AUDIT consumption (AUDIT-C) and problem (AUDIT-P) subscales predicted variance in a range of alcohol use behaviors across samples that were variously ascertained. With few exceptions, polygenic liability to AUDIT-P was a superior predictor of indices of heavy drinking and alcohol problems compared to the AUDIT-C.
