A customer leans on the table after excess consumption of alcohol. [Getty Images]
Why genes are to blame for alcohol addiction
Health & Science
By
Ayoki Onyango
| Oct 26, 2025
People often wonder why alcohol consumption varies from one person to another. Generally, individuals with smaller body sizes tend to drink less, while those who are larger may consume more.
Young adults in their 20s, 30s and early 40s also tend to drink more, possibly because their bodies and immune systems are stronger, whereas older people often limit themselves to just a few calabashes of busaa.
Now, a team of scientists has identified a gene that appears to influence how much alcohol a person consumes. The finding could pave the way for more effective treatments for alcoholism and binge drinking.
In a study involving more than 87,000 participants, researchers from two leading UK universities — Imperial College London and King’s College London — found that people with a rare version of a gene known as AUTS2 drink about five per cent less alcohol than those with the more common form of the gene.
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The five-year study, conducted between 2018 and 2023, aimed to understand why individuals differ in their alcohol consumption.
“The AUTS2 gene, also called autism susceptibility candidate 2, has previously been linked to autism and Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), though its exact function remains unclear,” explained Professor Paul Elliott of Imperial College London, the lead researcher. Professor Elliott noted that while many factors influence how much alcohol a person drinks, genes clearly play a major role.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), excessive alcohol consumption causes about six million deaths worldwide each year. It is the third-largest risk factor for diseases such as cardiovascular conditions, liver cirrhosis, various cancers and infections affecting the kidneys and other internal organs.
Dr Gunter Schumann of the Institute of Psychiatry at King’s College London, who was part of the research team, said that combining genetic studies with behavioral data could help scientists better understand the biological basis of excessive drinking and addiction.
“This is an important first step towards developing individually targeted prevention and treatment strategies for alcoholism, alcohol abuse and addiction,” Dr Schumann noted in the research paper titled Genome-Wide Association and Genetic Functional Studies of the Autism Susceptibility Candidate 2 Gene (AUTS2) in the Regulation of Alcohol Consumption (2019).
The study, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) journal, analyzed DNA samples from over 52,000 volunteers to identify genes that influence alcohol consumption and later verified the results in another 46,000 individuals.
The volunteers were asked to complete questionnaires detailing how much alcohol they had consumed over a specific period.
After identifying the AUTS2 gene, the researchers examined its activity in samples of donated brain tissue.
They discovered that individuals with the version of the gene linked to lower alcohol consumption showed higher AUTS2 activity.
The team also studied different strains of mice that had been selectively bred based on how much alcohol they consumed voluntarily. They found clear differences in AUTS2 gene activity among the various strains.
In another part of the research involving fruit flies, scientists found that blocking the effect of the fly version of the same gene made the insects less sensitive to alcohol.
According to Prof Elliott, these findings suggest that AUTS2 plays a role in regulating alcohol intake across different species, offering valuable insights into the biological control of drinking behavior.
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