News Release - Environment influences when drinking begins; genes' role increases in transition to alcohol dependence
By Jim Dryden
April 22, 2008 -- The influence of genetics increases as young women transition from taking their first drink to becoming alcoholics. A team of researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis found that although environment is most influential in determining when girls begin to drink, genes play a larger role if they advance to problem drinking and alcohol dependence.
The researchers studied 3,546 female twins ages 18 to 29 to ferret out the influences of genes and environment in the development of alcohol dependence. Their findings appear in the April issue of Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research.
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