Your trusted source

Whether you will fall victim to alcoholism really is determined by your genes, scientists warn.

It has long been suspected that the addiction runs in families but new research has now identified the DNA network that makes certain people more vulnerable to alcohol than others, the Daily Mail reports.

Comparing the brain tissue of alcoholics with that of non-alcoholics, a team of scientists from Texas University have discovered a specific set of genes responsible for the dependency, they claim.

The key set of DNA was only found in those suffering alcoholism.

Dr Adron Harris, of Texas University, said: 'This provides the most comprehensive picture to date of the gene sets that drive alcohol dependence.

'We now have a much clearer picture of where specific traits related to alcohol dependence overlap with specific expressions in genetic code.'

The study could lead to new treatments for alcoholics and possibly help doctors screen for alcoholism.

It's the first time scientists have used a new DNA sequencing technique called bioinformatics to identify the specific group of different genes that when expressed together are highly linked with alcohol dependence.

Dr Sean Farris, also of Texas University said: 'We hope our model can serve as a type of Wikipedia of alcohol dependence helping to break down the complexities of alcohol dependence and becoming a reference for future research into drug therapies.'

Only three drugs have approval from the US Food and Drug Administration to treat alcoholism - but none has been proven to cure the addiction.