Analyses of a national sample of individuals with alcohol dependence(alcoholism) reveal five distinct subtypes of the disease, according to a new study by scientists at the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA), part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

Girls who suffered childhood sexual abuse are more likely to develop alcoholism later in life if they possess a particular variant of a gene involved in the body’s response to stress, according to a new study led by researchers at the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA), part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH). The new finding could help explain why some individuals are more resilient to profound childhood trauma than others.

Increasingly, alcohol is enfolding Australia in its grip. A new report says that one in eight Aussies drinks at dangerous levels. Aboriginal Australians are suffering far more than most: they're twice as likely to die from the effects of drinking alcohol as their non-indigenous counterparts. The effects on the country's long-term health could be catastrophic.

Craving is an important contributor to the development and maintenance of alcoholism.
New findings show that appetite-regulating peptides leptin and ghrelin influence alcohol craving.
Leptin's influence on craving is especially notable among patients of Lesch's Type 1 and 2.

Men and women at risk for alcohol dependence are more likely to choose a mate who also is at risk, say investigators at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. That doesn't necessarily mean, however, that both spouses will end up as problem drinkers.

Alcohol dependence (AD) is more common among partners of alcoholics than among partners of non-alcoholics.
A new study examines two kinds of spousal similarity for influence on AD risk: assortative mating (like marries like), and reciprocal spousal interaction (an individual's behavior directly influences his/her spouse's behavior).