Three single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in alcohol-metabolizing genes - ADH1B (Arg47His), ADH1C (Ile350Val) and ALDH2 (Glu504Lys) have been extensively associated with flush reaction and alcoholism.
Because alcohol dehydrogenase (ADH1B) His47Arg and mitochondrial aldehyde dehydrogenase (ALDH2) Glu487Lys single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs), which affect alcohol metabolism, have been reported to exert significant impacts on alcohol consumption and on the risk for alcoholism in East Asia populations, we explored associations of the two functional SNPs with suicide using a case-control study of 283 completed suicides and 319 control subjects in the Japanese population.