Alcohol Dependence GWAS in European- and African Americans

This study includes SSADDA (Semi Structured Assessment for Drug Dependence and Alcoholism) assessed subjects (mostly unrelated, but including some affected sibling pairs) recruited in the course of several substance dependence genetics projects. The sample includes 1889 African-American (AA) subjects and 1020 European-American (EA) subjects. Among the AAs, 1397 meet DSM-IV criteria for alcohol dependence and 491 are controls. Among the EAs, 1010 meet the criteria for alcohol dependence and 9 are controls. (One in each population meets criteria for alcohol abuse and not dependence, and is therefore counted in neither category.) Although alcohol dependence is the major focus, the sample is informative also for cocaine, nicotine, and opioid dependence.]]>
Affected subjects were included on the basis of meeting DSM-IV criteria for alcohol dependence. Schizophrenia, bipolar affective disorder, or other major psychotic illness and gross cognitive impairment were exclusion criteria.]]>
This sample was collected in the course of three projects: a study focused on alcohol dependence genetics oversampling AAs, and studies focused on cocaine and opioid dependence genetics. In the early stages of these studies, affected sibling pairs suitable for linkage analysis were collected, and a relatively small number of these families are included in the present sample. This sample and other overlapping samples were the basis of published linkage studies on alcohol, cocaine, opioid, and nicotine dependence.]]>