[The role of genetic factors on the link between stress and alcohol use: the example of CRH-R1]

Abstract

There are no straightforward relationships between stressful life events, genetic factors and alcohol use. Human and animal-based studies suggest that stress exposure increase the risk of alcohol use and relapse among alcohol-dependent subjects. The physiological mechanisms underlying these links remain unknown. Alcohol dependence heritability ranges between 50% and 70%. Of the potentially involved genes, CRH-R1 appears as a plausible candidate in the literature. The present review emphasizes the relationship between variations of genes coding for proteins involved in physiological answer to stress and alcohol use, within the hypothesis of a gene x environment interaction.