We hypothesized that participants with at least one ADH1B*3 allele would exhibit a stronger response to alcohol, indicated by increased sedation, stimulation, and pulse rate following consumption, than those with two ADH1B*1 alleles. Although ADH1B*2 has been shown to be associated with lower risk for alcohol dependence as well (Whitfield, 2002), this variant is rare in populations of African ancestry (Osier et al, 2002). ADH1C*2 has also been found to be associated with increased alcohol dependence risk (Whitfield, 1997), and is thought to be associated with slower metabolism of alcohol (Edenberg, 2007). We tested whether subjects with ADH1C*2 alleles exhibited lower response to alcohol than those with ADH1C*1. As it is unclear whether ADH1B and ADH1C exert independent effects on alcohol metabolism (Luo et al., 2006; Osier et al., 1999), analyses were conducted separately for ADH1B and ADH1C.
