The problem of alcoholism in American Indians has been comprehensively addressed in three family linkage datasets: 1] SW tribe; 2] Eastern Oklahoma tribe with low prevalence of alcoholism; 3] Plains Indian tribe with neuropsychological data [EEG] - analytical studies in progress and 4]the Ten-Tribes dataset. In addition, LNG is the genetics collaborating laboratory on the first pharmacogenetic study on alcoholism treatment response [to naltrexone and sertraline]. This study on Alaska Natives, led by S. O'Malley [Yale], recently produced preliminary results extending efficacy of naltrexone to Native Americans. These projects include detailed psychiatric assessment with semi-structured psychiatric interviews, contrast between tribes differing in prevalence of alcoholism, study of cross-population variation in allele and haplotype frequencies, case-control association and family meiotic linkage analyses, examination of the role of individual differences in cultural experience, and - in two of the studies- the extensive use of EEG, ERP and heart rate variability intermediate phenotypes. We have identified genetic variation in several candidate genes that appear to alter vulnerability to alcoholism or alcohol-related traits such as anxiety and impulsivity. These genes include COMT, the GABAA alpha 2 subunit and other GABAA receptor genes, DRD2, HTR1B and Galanin. Whole genome scans were performed in two tribes. The first was conducted with 517 STR loci genotyped in a SW Indian family (N=582) that comprises a sizeable fraction of a Southwestern tribe with a high rate of alcoholism (85% of males, greater than 50% of females). The SW tribe genome scan detected two potential new loci for alcoholism: the DRD4 region at the chromosome 11p telomere, and the region of the GABAA cluster near the chromosome 4p centromere. The linkage hotspot in the GABA receptor cluster region on Chr4 was followed up with high density mapping, revealing a linkage disequilibrium signal at the GABA alpha 2 gene. This is in line with results from investigators at the University of Connecticut and the University of Indiana except that we were also able to show that the GABAA alpha 2 effect is apparently anxiety-mediated. A whole-genome scan using 5861 array-genotyped SNPs was performed on the Plains Indian tribal family. A genome-wide significant linkage peak was identified for EEG power on chromosome 5. The role of several candidate genes in this region, including CART (Cocaine and Amphetamine-Regulated Transcript) is being pursued. For Illicit Substance Use Disorder, two linkage peaks with Lod > 2.3 are being investigated. Candidate gene linkage findings include a sex-specific association of COMT Val158Met to anxiety and association of Galanin to alcoholism via anxiety. The HTR1B gene appears to be linked to antisocial alcoholism. In Indians, unlike other populations studied so far, the TPH2 gene does not appear to show a relationship to anxiety and depression, and this may be due to the unique absence of a protective TPH2 haplotype in American Indians. In addition to gene discovery, we have also shed some light on the meaning and consequences of alcohol-related diagnoses in American Indians. The same patterns of psychiatric comorbidity seen in the general U.S. population [National Comorbidity Survey] are seen in Indian alcoholics, indicating that the diagnosis is capturing a similar set of clinical problems. Binge drinking in American Indians is neither benign nor beneficial. Almost all of the large fraction of SW Indians who were binge drink were also alcoholic, and binge drinkers tended to become alcoholic at a younger age. Regardless of whether binge drinkers met criteria for alcoholism, they were dramatically worse in each of four symptom categories evaluated in the SADS-L: social, work, violence/lawlessness and physical. These results help lay to rest the misconception that drinking, particularly binge drinking, is other than deleterious to American Indians and regardless of whether binge drinking is culturally determined or congruent. Finally, stress/trauma - common in these communities and often a consequence of alcoholism and heavy alcohol use, was shown to be critically important risk element in the development of alcoholism and other psychiatric disorders. These findings, were originally reported from the SW Indian tribe, and then replicated in the Ten Tribes dataset.
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