Can alcoholism be inherited?
The answer to this question is: “Yes, in part”. While alcohol use is required to trigger alcoholism, the biological mechanism of alcoholism is uncertain. For most people, moderate alcohol consumption poses little danger of addiction. Other factors must exist for alcohol use to develop into alcoholism. These factors may include a person’s social environment, emotional health and genetic predisposition. In addition, an alcoholic can develop multiple forms of addiction to alcohol simultaneously such as psychological, metabolic, and neurochemical. Each type of addiction must be treated individually for an alcoholic to fully recover. According to new research, brain chemistry may be the reason some people with a strong family history of alcoholism become alcoholics while others do not. A team of scientists at the Brookhaven National Laboratory in Upton, NY have discovered that elevated levels of brain cell receptors, called dopamine D2 may protect those at greatest risk of developing alcoho
