Surrogate phenotype definition for alcohol use disorders: A genome-wide search for linkage and association

Abstract

For the identification of susceptibility loci in complex diseases the choice of the target phenotype is very important We compared results of genome-wide searches for linkage or for association related to three phenotypes for alcohol use disorder. These are a behavioral score BQ, based on a 12-item questionnaire about drinking behavior and the subject's report of drinking-related health problems, and ERP pattern and ERP magnitude, both derived from the eyes closed resting ERP measures to quantify brain activity. Overall, we were able to identify II candidate regions for linkage. Only two regions were found to be related to both BQ and one of the ERP phenotypes. The genome-wide search for association using single-nucleoticle polymorphisms did not yield interesting leads.