SCIENTISTS believe they have discovered a gene which may cause a person to become an alcoholic.
Researchers said the findings added weight to the argument that alcoholism is a disease, but said it would be years before the full role of genetics is understood.
However, Scottish experts warned against waiting for a “sexy” scientific solution to the problem of alcohol abuse.
A team from Washington University in St Louis studied genetic variations in which large parts of genes had been either deleted or replicated, known as copy number variations (CNVs).
CNVs are already known to influence autism and schizophrenia, and scientists looked at two chromosomes where they found a significant link between certain CNVs and alcoholism.
Professor John Rice wrote in Alcoholism: Clinical & Exper-imental Research that the variations were “statistically significant” but “the effect on risk is modest”.
He said: “It will be a challenge to understand what gene[s] are causing this association and how they work to increase one’s risk for alcohol dependence.
“Our results need to be replicated in independent samples. It is important to note that the associations are modest, so these findings cannot be used to predict who will become an alcoholic.
The results open up a new line of investigation, but it can take many years before we have a true understanding.”
Dr Laura Williamson, Wellcome Trust Research Fellow at the Institute for Applied Health Research, Glasgow Caledonian University, said this was not the first such discovery and people with alcohol dependency were still waiting for a “miracle cure”.
She said: “Given the stigma that already impedes recovery from dependence because people will not enter treatment, the discovery of an ability to identify who might develop an addiction problem, with treatment readily available, may in fact make the plight of the dependent and their families worse. People who are found to carry the gene may be denied life insurance or other benefits. Lots of ethical issues are raised by the ‘discovery’.
“Recently released hospital statistics show a gross disparity between those in high and low socio-economic groups. The poorer people are, the more likely they are to suffer of alcohol dependence or addiction. Women in Scotland are nearly twice as likely as English counterparts to have addiction problems with alcohol.
“So we need to help dependent drinkers in Scotland, not wait for some miracle, sexy science solution which may help in the future but, in the interim, will brand them as having a stigmatised condition.”
Barbara O’Donnell of campaign charity Alcohol Focus Scotland, said that the “pro- alcohol society” presents a “very challenging environment” for those with a dependency.
She added that in the interim, Scottish Government policy was to change the environment, not genetics, “through alcohol control measures, restricting affordability and availability, which will have a positive impact on the whole population, especially those struggling with alcohol dependency issues”.