The results of our study must be viewed in the context of its limitations. Our findings that individuals carrying the AD-associated alleles for SNPs in the GABRA2 region experience lower negative responses to alcohol may indicate that these individuals can drink more alcohol without experiencing its negative effects than non-carriers of the minor allele and may therefore be more likely to drink and drink heavily when given access to alcohol. It could be argued that further studies are needed to determine the effects of GABRA2 alleles on drinking behavior as it occurs in natural settings or using self-administration paradigms. Another limitation of the study is that the haplotype analyses included only Caucasian subjects; therefore, similar studies are needed in other population groups to ensure that the findings generalize to these groups. Finally, although we observed that SNPs and haplotypes were associated with differences in subjective responses to alcohol, to our knowledge the functional effects of the allelic variants examined remain unknown. Therefore, the SNPs examined may be in LD with variation at other loci within the GABRA2 gene or genes
