Is there an alcoholism/addiction gene?

It became public knowledge in the mid-1990s that alcoholism is "genetic." As a doctor I was very concerned about this information, because I feared that alcoholics would resign themselves to their disease, feeling that they were beyond help because they had the gene for it. I was also afraid that children of alcoholics would see their own development of alcoholism as inevitable, so that it would become a self-fulfilling prophecy. Since then, we have learned a lot more about the genetics of alcoholism and addiction.

We believe that 40-60% of what makes us addicted to alcohol, drugs, or addictive behaviors is genetic. However, that number is extremely difficult to come up with. There are two things that determine the person we become: "nature" and "nurture". "Nature" is our genetics, and "nurture" is the environmental influences that shape us: how we are brought up, our education, nutrition, life experiences, and so on. Some things are only determined by nature (genetics) -- such as eye color -- while some things are determined only by nurture -- such as which high school we go to. Most things about us result from a combination of the two.


Alcoholism or addiction is influenced by both nature and nurture, and it is impossible to sort out exactly by how much of each.  For example, let's take an alcoholic and let's say she has an alcoholic father. She probably inherited some kind of "alcoholic gene" from her dad. However, she grew in an alcoholic home, may have been abused, and knew only turmoil and conflict at home. Let's also say she ended up in an abusive relationship herself and developed depression as a young woman. Obviously, her upbringing and early adult life  would predispose her to alcoholism or addiction, as it included some non-genetic risk factors, such as a history of abuse, early exposure to alcohol, and so on. No one could know how much of her alcoholism was brought on by genetics and how much was brought on by her life situation.

There is no single "alcoholism/addiction gene." The genetics here involve a great number of genes that all influence many different factors that all come together to build a predisposition to this disease. Most of them are genes that influence the brain, particularly neurotransmitter production, use, and metabolism, as well as neurotransmitter receptors. Neurotransmitters are the chemicals that our brain cells use to form connections and pass information.

We inherit a combination of genes from each of our parents, and genes often drift (change) randomly, so there is no way to know which genes we ended up with from which parent. There are so many genes involved that we don't yet know which ones are involved for sure, and there is no testing available. So, just because our parent is an alcoholic or addict doesn't mean we have inherited the genetics involved, and it doesn't mean we've passed them off to our children. Either way, the genetics can be trumped by "nurture," so that a good and loving up-bringing can over-ride any genetic predisposition.

My family has a strong history of alcoholism on my father's side, so it's a good bet that there are some genetics at work there. I became an alcoholic and addict. However, I have one sibling, my sister, who has never had a problem with alcoholism or addiction in any way. And we were raised in the same home by the same parents. So there you go.

In the end, it doesn't really matter whether we came to alcoholism or addiction by nature or nurture, what matters is that we are here and we need help. Even those with a strong family history of this disease are able to break free from it. And it definitely doesn't mean we or our children are inevitably destined for it.



To learn more about the science and psychology of addiction and recovery, and to understand why alcoholics and addicts behave the way they do, see the author's book The Alcoholic / Addict Within.

Available for sample or purchase in paperback and ebook editions at amazon.com (Click Here).