Approved research

Genome-wide association studies of alcohol dependence and substance-misuse.

Lay summary

The primary aim is to identify genetic associations with a) alcohol dependence and b) substance misuse (including alcohol misuse and illicit drug misuse) via genome-wide association studies (GWAS), making use of data from the UK Biobank genotyping project. The Psychiatric Genomics Consortium Substance Use Disorders working group (PGC-SUD) is currently conducting meta-analyses of GWAS data for alcoholism and other substance-related phenotypes. Our first analysis uses alcohol dependent cases (N=13K) and exposed controls (N=30K). UK Biobank therefore represents an outstanding resource for additional GWAS data which will be included within our meta-analysis work. Alcohol dependence and substance misuse are serious public health challenges and are among the top causes of morbidity and mortality globally. This project aims to identify new genetic risk factors for alcohol dependence and substance-misuse. Insights from this work will lead to a better understanding of disease processes in the area of addictions and will lead to new approaches to diagnosis and the development of new treatment approaches. This work will consist of genome-wide association studies (GWAS), making use of all available data from the UK Biobank genotyping project.Results will be combined with existing results from international samples with the PGC. These GWAS studies will make use of phenotypic and genetic data on all Biobank participants (the full cohort).