Tyrosine hydroxylase and dopamine D4 receptor allelic distribution in Scandinavian chronic alcoholics.

Associations of polymorphic genetic markers at the tyrosine hydroxylase (TH) and dopamine D4 receptor (DRD4) loci were examined in Scandinavian chronic alcoholics (n = 72) and control subjects (n = 67). Patients were divided into subgroups with regard to the presence of parental alcoholism and age of onset. Neither the TH nor the DRD4 allele distributions were significantly different when alcoholic samples were compared with control subjects. However, a tendency to high prevalence for 1 of the 5 TH alleles assayed (TH-K3) was observed in a subsample of 44 alcoholics characterized by late onset when compared with control subjects (27.3% vs. 10.6%, p = 0.041). Results suggest that no major influence on alcoholism is exerted through genes associated with the DRD4 or TH allelic markers examined.