Another limitation of the current study is that alcohol response was tested for a single dose level across all participants. There is some evidence that the kinetic properties of ADH enzymes in those with ADH1B*3 have greater activity at higher alcohol concentrations (Lee et al., 2006). Effect size results for the current study are relatively modest, with partial η2 values ranging from .04-.08 for sedation main effects. It may be that greater differences in alcohol response would be observed at higher alcohol doses. The study also lacked a placebo condition, which prevents testing of potential expectancy effects. However, both the participants and experimenter were blind to the participants’ genetic status, which makes expectancy effects an unlikely explanation for observed ADH1B*3 differences.
