lication of Goodwin and Guze. Gene knockout technology and transgenic animals have been instituted and are helping to create better test subjects from genetically engineered lab animals. Gene knockout technology renders a gene in an animal mute and extra genes are added to transgenic animals to form desired combinations. These methods are particularly helpful because they are able to isolate the function of a specific gene and determine whether it is pertinent to the study at hand (Homanics and Hiller-Sturmhofel, 1997).In the specific area of testing for alcoholism the most common method of using the knockout technology is to interrupt receptors of seratonin for example, thereby learning of the significance that seratonin has in the brain of an alcoholic. In one test it was learned that some of alcohol’s effects are due to a particular receptor but aspects such as tolerance and withdrawal are not. These learnings will have particular significance in the future of medical treatment for alcoholism. As alcohol dependency has been determined to be polygenic, the benefits of knockout technology are harder to ascertain as disrupting one gene will have unforeseen consequences on others. However, new technology is continually being developed to overcome these roadblocks (Homanics and Hiller-Sturmhofel, 1997). ConclusionIt has been demonstrated in the preceding pages that alcoholism has many facets. Despite amazing 21st century technology, centuries of consumption and decades of dedicated research alcoholism still remains one of the most difficult diseases to fully understand. The combination of environment and biology makes alcoholism and alcohol related diseases particularly interesting to study. The difficulties involved in establishing good data are many because of the inseparable relationship of alcoholism’s contributors. Through the countless studies that have been performed alcoholism has been demystified to a large...
