Alcoholism: a pharmacogenetic disorder.

Alcoholism is an extremely common psychosocial behavioral disorder for which genetic factors may play an important role. Statistical analysis of special kinds of family studies that separate inherited factors from the common family environment point strongly to genetic predisposition. This paper presents data and speculations on the genetically determined differences among population subgroups and individuals in the acute effects of ethanol ingestion, the metabolism of ethanol, the process of tolerance, physical dependence and addictability, premorbid personality features and serious complications of alcoholism in the liver and brain of the alcoholic and in the offspring of alcoholic mothers.