Validation in Humans of Genes Involved in Alcohol Drinking, Stress-Induced Alcohol Drinking and Relapse

Inclusion criteria

• All 18 or 19 year old participants of the Mannheim risk children study, i.e. a longitudinal birth cohort study that started in 1986 and had the inclusion criteria given below:
• Male and female singletons, firstborn to their mothers between February 1st, 1986 and February 28th, 1988, consecutively recruited from 2 obstetric and 4 children's hospitals of the Rhine-Neckar region, Germany.
• with no severe physical handicaps, obvious genetic defects, or metabolic diseases.
• with German-speaking Caucasian parents.
• Falling into one of 3 predefined groups with absent, moderate or high pre- and perinatal risk, operationalized by low gestational age at birth, low birth weight, and severity of the following: Preterm labor, EPH-gestosis, perinatal asphyxia, seizures, respiratory distress syndrome, perinatal sepsis.
• Falling into one of 3 predefined groups with absent, moderate or high psychosocial risk, operationalized by a family risk index measuring the presence of 11 adverse family factors covering characteristics of the parents (e.g., psychiatric disorders), the partnership (e.g., disharmony), and the family environment (e.g., overcrowding)during a period of one year prior to birth.

Exclusion criteria

• Intelligence quotient or motor quotient below 70, or presence of severe neurological disorder such as infantile cerebral palsy, at age 15.
• Women with known pregnancy.
• Any physical of psychiatric disease requiring treatment
• Incapable to give informed consent or to answer questionnaires in writing
• Recent use of illegal drugs