Pharmacogenetics – A Treatment Strategy for Alcoholism

Alcoholism is a complex relapsing disorder of heterogeneous etiology, affecting people internationally. Alcohol dependence is a cumulative response of inability to stop drinking, craving and developing the symptoms of physical dependence and tolerance. In past two decades, mounting evidence has suggested that alcoholism or alcohol addiction is a host of major psychological, social, financial and health problems (Poznyak et al., 2005). According to World Health Organization, alcoholism is responsible for 4% of global disease burden and is the third major preventable risk factor for premature death and disability in developed nations (World Health Organization, 2002). Although, the exclusive biological mechanisms underlying the development of alcoholism are still uncertain, the major risk factors contributing towards the development of alcoholism are age (adolescents are at higher risk of developing alcoholism), gender (men are more prone to develop alcoholism as compared to women due to depression), personality (experience seeking), and psychiatric or behavioral disorders. The prevalence, age of onset, clinical symptoms and outcome of alcoholism differs from individual to individual and varies according to ethnicity (Kenneth et al., 2011). In addition to this, lower social status and low education have also been found to be associated with alcoholism in cross sectional and longitudinal studies (Fukuda et al., 2005; Poznyak et al., 2005; Subramanian et al., 2005; Wray et al., 2005).