Alcohol consumption in parents and offspring: a study of the family correlation structure in a general population.

Alcohol consumption was recorded for 2390 spouses and 498 children of age 18 or above living with their parents. The spouse correlation was 0.67, whereas parent-offspring and sibling correlations were all close to 0.35. This family correlation structure implies an upper limit for heritability of 0.44. The design does not permit a separation of effect of cultural (environmental) and genetic transmission in families, but comparisons with previous heritability analyses suggest that heritability is in fact close to the upper limit, implying little or no cultural transmission. There were virtually no correlations between alcohol consumption and symptoms of anxiety and depression. Nor did consumption correlate substantially with symptoms in first-degree relatives. These results do not support hypotheses of common genetic nor even of common environmental determinants for alcohol consumption and mental disorders.