PNAS has a new study out on the “modest” association between GABRA2 and “alcohol dependence.” The odds ratios pretty weak. But what struck me is that the populations they looked at was mostly European and African American. I wonder why these research programs just don’t focus on Native Ameicans; who are operationally an admixed population (European + Native American) and manifest a lot of alcohol dependence.
Citation: Laura J. Bierut, Arpana Agrawal, Kathleen K. Bucholz, Kimberly F. Doheny, Cathy Laurie, Elizabeth Pugh, Sherri Fisher, Louis Fox, William Howells, Sarah Bertelsen, Anthony L. Hinrichs, Laura Almasy, Naomi Breslau, Robert C. Culverhouse, Danielle M. Dick, Howard J. Edenberg, Tatiana Foroud, Richard A. Grucza, Dorothy Hatsukami, Victor Hesselbrock, Eric O. Johnson, John Kramer, Robert F. Krueger, Samuel Kuperman, Michael Lynskey, Karl Mann, Rosalind J. Neuman, Markus M. Nöthen, John I. Nurnberger, Jr., Bernice Porjesz, Monika Ridinger, Nancy L. Saccone, Scott F. Saccone, Marc A. Schuckit, Jay A. Tischfield, Jen C. Wang, Marcella Rietschel, Alison M. Goate, John P. Rice, and as part of the Gene, Environment Association Studies (GENEVA) Consortium, A genome-wide association study of alcohol dependence , doi:10.1073/pnas.0911109107
