Animal models for the study of alcoholism: utility of selected lines.

One recent advance in the field of alcohol research has been the recognition that a predisposition to develop alcoholism is, in part, genetically determined. It now remains to identify the factors, which, when inherited, increase risk for alcoholism. One approach to this problem is to analyze how organisms with identifiable genetic predisposition towards ethanol drinking differ from organisms without genetic risk. Such an approach may lead to the identification of neurochemical, neurophysiological or neuroanatomical factors which, when inherited alone, or in combination, serve to predispose an organism towards ethanol drinking.