Studies using similar alcohol challenge methodologies among groups at lower risk for alcoholism have provided additional support for the idea that individual sensitivity to alcohol might also mediate protection from developing alcoholism. Individuals of Asian heritage, who have mutations in the aldehyde dehydrogenase gene (ALDH2) (Wall et al., 1992), and individuals of Jewish decent (Monteiro et al., 1991), two groups with low rates of alcoholism, were found to have more intense, although not necessarily more negative, self reported responses to alcohol than matched control subjects of average alcoholism risk.
