A genetic animal model of alcohol withdrawal

Work with genetic animal models has a long history in alcohol research. No attempt has been made here to acknowledge the contributions of the many other long-standing projects in the area. Rather, I have tried to give a capsule view of one such project, and to indicate some areas of future direction. It seems clear that the explosion of molecular biological tools will greatly expand our capabilities in the immediate future. The field is well-situated to take advantage of this situation, as it has achieved much progress during the 'dark ages,' where the study of genetic influence was inferential: that is, we were limited to studying genes we could not identify. The future will surely lead us to the identification and study of specific genes of importance.