Behavior, Treatment and Prevention

Possible Association Between OPRM1 Genetic Variance at the 118 Locus and Alcohol Dependence in a Large Treatment Sample: Relationship to Alcohol Dependence Symptoms

  1. Gabriele Koller1,*,
  2. Peter Zill1,
  3. Dan Rujescu1,
  4. Monika Ridinger2,
  5. Oliver Pogarell1,
  6. Christoph Fehr3,
  7. Norbert Wodarz2,
  8. Brigitta Bondy1,
  9. Michael Soyka4,
  10. Ulrich W. Preuss5

Article first published online: 6 FEB 2012

DOI: 10.1111/j.1530-0277.2011.01714.x

Issue

Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research

Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research

Volume 36, Issue 7, pages 1230–1236, July 2012

Additional Information

How to Cite

Koller, G., Zill, P., Rujescu, D., Ridinger, M., Pogarell, O., Fehr, C., Wodarz, N., Bondy, B., Soyka, M. and Preuss, U. W. (2012), Possible Association Between OPRM1 Genetic Variance at the 118 Locus and Alcohol Dependence in a Large Treatment Sample: Relationship to Alcohol Dependence Symptoms. Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research, 36: 1230–1236. doi: 10.1111/j.1530-0277.2011.01714.x

Author Information

  1. 1

    Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Ludwig-Maximilians University, Munich, Germany

  2. 2

    Department of Psychiatry, Psychosomatics and Psychotherapy, University Medical Center, Regensburg, Germany

  3. 3

    Department of Psychiatry, Johannes-Gutenberg University, Mainz, Germany

  4. 4

    Privatklinik Meiringen, Meiringen, Switzerland

  5. 5

    Department of Psychiatry, Psychotherapy, Psychosomatics, Martin-Luther-University, Halle, Germany

*Reprint requests: Dr. Gabriele Koller, Klinik für Psychiatrie und Psychotherapie der LMU, Nußbaumstraße 7, 80336 Munich, Germany; Tel.: 00498951605741; Fax: 00498951605748; E-mail: gabi.koller@med.uni-muenchen.de

Publication History

  1. Issue published online: 10 JUL 2012
  2. Article first published online: 6 FEB 2012
  3. Manuscript Accepted: 26 OCT 2011
  4. Manuscript Received: 22 MAR 2011

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Keywords:

  • Alcohol;
  • Genetics;
  • Polymorphism;
  • Opioid Receptor;
  • Dependence

Background

Several lines of evidence from previous research indicate that opioid receptors play an important role in ethanol reinforcement and alcohol dependence (AD) risk. Conflicting results were reported on the role of the mu-opioid receptor (OPRM1) polymorphism A118G (Asn40Asp, rs1799971) in the development of alcoholism.

Methods

We investigated a total number of 1,845 alcohol-dependent subjects recruited from inpatient facilities in Germany and 1,863 controls for the mu-opioid receptor (OPRM1) polymorphism using chi-square statistics.

Results

An association between the OPRM variant and AD was detected (p = 0.022), in recessive (AA vs. GA/GG) and co-dominant (AA vs. GA) models of inheritance. An association between the OPRM variant and the DSM-IV criterion “efforts to cut down or could not” (p = 0.047) was found, but this did not remain significant after the correction for multiple testing.

Conclusions

The results indicate that this functional OPRM variant is associated with risk of AD and these findings apply to more severe AD, although the association is only nominally significant.

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