In other risk pathways, it remains unclear whether common comorbidities with major depression, conduct disorder and antisocial personality disorder are due to direct etiological overlap between the conditions. Alternatively, those with major depression might have a higher risk for alcohol dependence because they are more likely to seek the anxiolytic effects of alcohol, as those with conduct disorder are more likely to select deviant peer groups who provide them with alcohol. Many different phenotypes are now commonly assessed, and these often provide substantially stronger evidence for the involvement of particular genes in alcohol dependence risk.
