Bad Genes or Bad Luck?
Two scientific papers from January 2026 that remind us how alcohol misuse has both genetic and environmental drivers.
· Icick R et al. Identification of risk variants and cross-disorder pleiotropy through multi-ancestry genome-wide analysis of alcohol use disorder. Nature Mental Health 2026; 3: 253-265.
· Disease burden attributable to intimate partner violence against females and sexual violence against children in 204 countries and territories, 1990–2023: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2023. Lancet 2026; 407: 31–52.
The first of these papers uses state-of-the-art analytics to interrogate the results of genomic testing on a total sample of 1,041,450 individuals with European, African, Hispanic, East Asian and South Asian ancestry. The methods are complex and don’t seek to actually tell us what individual genes are at play.
Rather, it gives a map of the whole genome in terms of variation at tens of thousands of individual points – a bit like a genetic fingerprint. Armed with this, the researchers use high powered computation to establish a subset of plausible variants that map to regions of the brain associated with alcohol (based on prior knowledge) bringing the fingerprint down to 37 genetic loci of interest (with some variation between ancestries).
They then looked at overlap between variation at these loci seen with alcohol use disorder (AUD) and other important conditions that are known to pose a higher risk of AUD. Their findings confirm what has been shown in several previous studies with slightly different methodologies, namely that schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, depression, ADHD, neuroticism and opioid use disorder are not complications of alcohol use but rather share a genetic liability (correctly called ‘polygenic risk’) with AUD.
The second study looked at what can happen to us during life and the well-known association of abuse (especially in childhood) on development of substance misuse. The researchers estimated the prevalence and attributable burden of Intimate partner violence (IPV) and sexual violence against children (SVAC) in 204 countries and territories, by age and sex, from 1990 to 2023, as part of the Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries, and Risk Factors Study 2023 (funded by Gates Foundation).
Depressingly, they found that globally, in 2023, 608 million females aged 15 years and older had ever been exposed to IPV, and 1·01 billion (0·764–1·48) individuals aged 15 years and older had experienced sexual violence during childhood. The downstream effects of this were marked and included several mental health Schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, depression, dissocial behaviour, deliberate self-harm and substance use disorders (including AUD), the latter being one of the most common consequences of SVAC, especially in males.
Summary:
Research by Icick R et al. and findings published in The Lancet suggest alcohol misuse is shaped by both biology and environment. Genetic factors may influence vulnerability, but social context, stress, and exposure play an equally important role. Together, they show behaviour is driven by the interaction between nature and nurture, rather than “bad genes” or simple chance.