Are some teens wired to binge drink?

Futurity, (London, UK) December 4, 2012

"A gene variation may help explain why some teenagers are more likely than others to binge drink.
Alcohol and other addictive drugs activate the brain’s dopamine system, which is responsible for feelings of pleasure and reward. Recent studies have found that the RASGRF2 gene is a risk gene for alcohol abuse, however, the exact mechanism involved in this process has, until now, remained unknown.
'People seek out situations which fulfill their sense of reward and make them happy, so if your brain is wired to find alcohol rewarding, you will seek it out,' says lead author Gunter Schumann from the Department of Social, Genetic and Developmental Psychiatry at King’s College London.
The study, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, provides the most detailed understanding yet of the brain processes involved in teenage alcohol abuse." Read More