Doomed to Drink?

From the website of the Alcohol/Drug Council of North Carolina in February 2011 comes an excellent article that researches whether alcoholism is genetic. About 10 percent of Americans suffer an inability to cut down on alcohol at one time or another in their lives. Everyone knows that alcoholism does seem to run in families, and statistics show that the children of alcoholics are four times as likely to have drinking problems than everyone else. Sons, especially: nine times as likely. It’s shocking to note that even the babies of alcoholics that get adopted into non-drinking homes run the same risk they would have had with their birth parents.

But alcoholism is pretty complex, and it’s not easy to discover which genes are involved. Is it being prone to anxiety or depression? Is it whether your liver metabolizes liquor quicker or how your brain reacts to stress, reward, and pleasure? Many studies have been done. Apparently there are different types of alcoholism, and studies are working towards finding medicines that can be tailored to work on each kind according to people’s DNA.

How do you know if someone is an alcoholic? The NC website lists 8 symptoms and says that if you have done 3 of them, then you are “alcohol-dependent.”

• Drunk more or longer than you intended
• Been unable to stop or cut down
• Needed more alcohol to get the same effect
• Had withdrawal symptoms without it
• Spent an increasing amount of time drinking or recovering
• Neglected other activities due to drinking
• Continued to drink despite negative consequences

About 5% of Americans currently meet the criteria, and more than 10% do at some time in their lives, according to the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism.

Studies have been done with anti-nausea drugs that work to block serotonin receptors and diminish the alcoholic buzz for people with two specific variations of one gene. Other drugs that are related to the opiod-receptor seem to work for people with that particular type of gene. Blood tests can help doctors to determine which kind of human being you are.

Experts are not advising that alcoholics rush down to their doctor’s office just yet, though, because genetic testing still needs to be researched further. Even if an underlying susceptibility is discovered, it’s still going to come down to having to push away the glass or the bottle so that one will not become an alcoholic.