According to the results of a genome-wide association study published in American Journal of Psychiatry.

The researchers used the Alcohol Use Disorder Identification Test (AUDIT) as a screen.

“In the present study, we sought to elucidate the genetics of alcohol consumption and the problematic consequences of alcohol consumption measured via AUDIT using the modeling of genomic structural equations, a novel multivariate framework that allows for apply structural equation modeling techniques to genetic covariance matrices based on GWAS results, ” Travis T. Mallard, MA, from the Department of Psychology at the University of Texas at Austin, and colleagues have written. “As a result, we have undertaken the first and most important item level to date [genome-wide association study (GWAS)] AUDIT meta-analyzes (N = 160,824), using data from three population cohorts of European descent. We then used the modeling of genomic structural equations to analyze the GWAS results at the item level with the aim of 1) studying the structure of the latent genetic factors of AUDIT, based on prior knowledge, and 2) carrying out studies. Multivariate GWAS of the resulting latent genetic factor (s). . “

Researchers mitigated bias in previous studies by applying the multivariate framework. The results showed that the AUDIT items presented new patterns of similarity and dissimilarity. The researchers noted evidence of a genetically correlated two-factor structure that existed between “use” and “problems”. They created an aggregate measure of alcohol consumption by applying empirical weights to each of the AUDIT items and found that it was strongly related to alcohol dependence, moderately related to several other psychiatric disorders, and that it was no longer positively related to health and positive socio-economic outcomes. In addition, they highlighted new genetic associations between alcohol consumption, alcohol abuse, and health by performing polygenic analyzes in three independent cohorts that had different findings and prevalence of alcohol use disorders. ‘alcohol.

“The consumption factor was a good genetic indicator of [alcohol use disorder] when appropriate weights have been applied to individual elements using the modeling of genomic structural equations, ”Mallard and colleagues wrote. “This is a stark change from previous investigations into the divergent genetic basis of alcohol use and problematic use, including our own previous AUDIT analyzes.”