alcoholism

A psychiatric geneticist at the School of Medicine is one of several principal investigators around the country who will participate in the Genes, Environment and Health Initiative (GEI), a unique collaboration between geneticists and environmental scientists. The $48 million initiative is sponsored by the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Laura Jean Bierut, M.D., professor of psychiatry at the School of Medicine, will head the national study of addiction, looking both at genetic and environmental factors that contribute to the problem.

Alcohol and drug abuse remain the biggest problems among homeless individuals.The homeless population is changing. In the days of the Great Depression, many homeless people were victims of bad luck and a worse economy. But after studying St. Louis’ homeless population since the 1980’s, experts at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis say the problem has become more complex in recent times.

Gene D. Thin Elk, one of the nation’s leading authorities on treatment for alcoholism, will present a lecture on the “Red Road Approach to Wellness and Healing” 4:30 p.m. Nov. 30 in Brown Lounge. The Red Road approach, created by Thin Elk, uses Native American traditions and values as part of a drug and alcohol rehabilitation program. The lecture, which is free and open to the public, is sponsored by the Kathryn M. Buder Center for American Indian Studies at the George Warren Brown School of Social Work and the American Indian Student Association.

Photo courtesy University of IowaCould there be a link between the obesity epidemic and eugenic thinking? A historian of science at Washington University in St. Louis poses the question.As obesity rates continue to grow in the United States, threatening the health of millions of Americans, a historian of science warns that social problems such as this cannot be solved through science, especially genetics, alone. In this new “gene age” in which large amounts of research funds are used for studies on the genetics of such complex social traits as alcoholism, criminality or obesity, for example, Garland E. Allen, Ph.D., professor of biology in Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis, says the climate is ripe for a “re-packaged” eugenics in American society. Allen points out that 100 years ago, eugenics, a movement that claimed many social, personality and mental traits were hereditary, was emerging as a major social movement in Europe and the United States. His concern: it might well still be with us today.

Heavy drinking is associated with a number of problems, but one surprisingly common problem involves not remembering large chunks of time. Called alcohol-induced blackouts, these memory losses were reported by more than 39 percent of women and more than 50 percent of men studied by researchers from Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis and the Queensland Institute on Medical Research in Australia. The researchers also found that genetic factors play a big role in whether or not a person blacks out after heavy drinking. Studying more than 2,300 pairs of Australian twins, the research team was able to determine that more than 50 percent of the risk of blacking out seems to be controlled by genetic factors, and the role of genes is even greater in people who report blacking out multiple times.