双胞胎研究设计。

Prescott Carol A, Kendler Kenneth S

Carol A. Prescott, Ph.D., is co-director of the Stress & Coping Twin Project and assistant professor of the Psychiatric Genetics Research Program, Department of Psychiatry, Medical College of Virginia/Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, Virginia. Kenneth S. Kendler, M.D., is director of the Psychiatric Genetics Research Program and is Rachel Brown Banks Distinguished Professor in the departments of psychiatry and human genetics, Medical College of Virginia/Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, Virginia.

Alcohol Health Res World. 1995;19(3):200-205.

By studying human pairs of twins, researchers can learn the relative contributions of genetic and environmental factors to the development of alcoholism. Identical (i.e., monozygotic, or MZ) twins share 100 percent of their genes, whereas fraternal (i.e., dizygotic, or DZ) twins generally share only 50 percent of their genes. Using certain techniques and theoretical models, researchers can compare the two types of twin pairs for how often alcoholism occurs in both members of a twin pair. If alcoholism occurs more often in both members of MZ twins, genetic factors are implicated in the origin of the disorder. Twin research also has been applied to studies of differences between men and women in their genetic contribution to alcoholism.

通过研究双胞胎对，研究人员可以了解遗传和环境因素对酒精中毒发展的相对贡献。同卵（即单卵，或MZ）双胞胎共享100%的基因，而异卵（即双卵，或DZ）双胞胎通常只共享50%的基因。使用某些技术和理论模型，研究人员可以比较这两种双胞胎对中酒精中毒在双胞胎对的两个成员中发生的频率。如果酒精中毒在MZ双胞胎的两个成员中更频繁地发生，那么遗传因素与该疾病的起源有关。双胞胎研究也已应用于男性和女性对酒精中毒的遗传贡献差异的研究。