hey produce feelings of well being, relaxation and euphoria. The authors of the study hypothesize that because people genetically respond differently to alcohol consumption, those that produce more beta-endorphins are more likely to become addicted. There are a couple of problems with this study, however. The hypothesis is, after all, only a hypothesis. There was no background check done to see if those twins that responded with a greater than average beta-endorphin response were in fact at a higher risk of alcohol addiction based on family history. Another interesting aspect of this study is that DZ twins usually reacted differently from one another in te4rms of beta-endorphin response. This does indeed seem to illustrate that the reaction to alcohol is heritable, because MZ twins react the same. This demonstrates something further though. It suggests that DZ twins, which are similar but not identical in terms of genotype, respond quite differently. Parents and their children are even more genetically different that non-identical siblings, so it seems that a child would have a significantly different beta-endorphin response from its parent. The whole basis for the conclusion that risk for alcoholism is genetic is that DZ twins are not as similar in their response as are MZ twins. This demonstrates that parental alcoholism does not necessarily translate into similar risk of alcoholism in the child. A parent and child are not identical in their genome.The second study suggests that the COMT gene, which is involved in dopamine metabolism, might be responsible for the drinking habits of not just alcoholics, but even social drinkers. One unique thing about this study is that it does not deal with a disorder or abnormality. It deals simply with whether the subject is homozygous for the low activity COMT, then dopamine is processed less quickly, which makes the high associated with alcohol consumption more distinct and longer.The authors sugg...
