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A risk marker for alcohol dependence on chromosome 2q35 is related to neuroticism in the general population

Molecular Psychiatry volume 16, pages 126–128 (2011)Cite this article

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Alcohol dependence is a common disorder with a high impact on health and socio-economy and has a high genetic load.1 Here we show that the genetic marker rs7590720, for which we recently showed significant association (P<9.72 × 10−9) with alcohol dependence in a genome-wide association study (GWAS)2, is also related to human personality in the general population.

Alcohol dependence is a phenotypically heterogeneous disorder and has a variety of underlying causes. Several, if not many, genes with modest effect have an impact on the disorder.3 It is assumed that some of these genes are common vulnerability genes that are also found at a high frequency in the general population and should have a measurable impact on, for example, continuous and quantitative personality traits. In line with this, different personality traits have been found to be implicated in alcohol dependence. For example, a more introverted personality type with high neuroticism in combination with depressive traits, as well as a more extraverted personality type with antisocial behaviour, high impulsivity and low neuroticism, might lead to alcohol dependence.4, 5, 6

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Acknowledgements

External financial support was provided in the past 3 years by the following: Hans Jörgen Grabe—German Research Foundation; Federal Ministry of Education and Research Germany; speaker's honoraria from Bristol-Myers Squibb, Eli Lilly, Novartis, Eisai, Wyeth, Boehringer Ingelheim and travel funds from Janssen-Cilag, AstraZeneca, Lilly and SALUS—Institute for Trend-Research and Therapy Evaluation in Mental Health; Carsten Spitzer—travel funds and speaker's honoraria from Janssen-Cilag and Boehringer-Ingelheim; research grant from the ‘Stiftung zur Aufarbeitung der SED-Diktatur’; Sven Barnow—German Research Foundation, Federal Ministry of Health, Germany; Harald J. Freyberger—German Research Foundation; Social Ministry of the Federal State of Mecklenburg-West Pomerania; Family Ministry of the Federal Republic of Germany, speaker's honoraria from AstraZeneca, Lilly, Novartis and travel funds from Janssen-Cilag; Henry Völzke—research grants by Sanofi-Aventis, Biotronik, the Humboldt Foundation, the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (Germany) and the German Research Foundation; Marcella Rietschel—German Research Foundation, Federal Ministry of Education and Research Germany, European Union, Heidelberg Academy of Science, National Institute of Mental Health, USA.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, University of Greifswald, Stralsund, Germany

    H J Grabe, J Mahler, A Schulz, K Appel & H J Freyberger

  2. Institute for Genetic Epidemiology, Central Institute for Mental Health, Mannheim, Germany

    S H Witt & M Rietschel

  3. Department of Psychosomatic Medicine and Psychotherapy, University of Hamburg and Schön Klinik, Hamburg-Eilbek, Germany

    C Spitzer

  4. Institute of Epidemiology and Social Medicine, University of Greifswald, Stralsund, Germany

    C Spitzer

  5. Department of Biological and Clinical Psychology, University of Greifswald, Stralsund, Germany

    J Stender

  6. Institute of Clinical Psychology, University of Heidelberg, Heidelberg, Germany

    S Barnow

  7. Interfacultary Institute for Genetics and Functional Genomics, University of Greifswald, Stralsund, Germany

    A Teumer

  8. Institute for Community Medicine, University of Greifswald, Stralsund, Germany

    H Völzke

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  1. H J Grabe
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  2. J Mahler
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  9. H J Freyberger
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  10. A Teumer
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  11. H Völzke
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  12. M Rietschel
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Correspondence to H J Grabe.

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Grabe, H., Mahler, J., Witt, S. et al. A risk marker for alcohol dependence on chromosome 2q35 is related to neuroticism in the general population. Mol Psychiatry 16, 126–128 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1038/mp.2009.119

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