"These findings are important," said Smith, "both for the specific reason that genetics appear to influence learning, and in this case reduce risk, and for the more general reason that they show us the value of integrating what have, historically, been two different fields of study within the alcoholism world."
"Our prior research had found support for the hypothesis that having ALDH2 alleles altered expectancies," said McCarthy. "The goal of the present study was to test how ALDH2 affects expectancies. It is only recently that people have started to look at physiological variables and how they might shape learning and expectancies. Here we tested a physiological mechanism by which ALDH2 status could affect expectancies - through its effect on level of response to alcohol. That the data supported this hypothesis implies that ALDH2 status directly affects expectancies because of the effect it has on level of response to alcohol."
McCarthy noted that the gender differences in both this and the previous study provide interesting hints as to how this process may differ for men and women. Both found ALDH2 status to be related to expectancies for women. This study, however, indicates that this relationship may not be due to ALDH2's effect on alcohol response for women, as it appears to be for men. McCarthy said this is the kind of finding that raises several more questions. For example, does this difference mean that men's level of response to alcohol is more likely to determine what they learn about alcohol? Or that women are more influenced by other factors such as parental modeling of alcohol use? Both he and Smith recommended more intensive research of women.
"There are only a handful of studies demonstrating how a genetic factor
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14-Nov-2001