Genes play a role

The risk for alcoholism is genetically inherited. Children of alcoholics have a 300 percent to 400 percent greater chance of becoming an alcoholic than the child of a nonalcoholic. Megan's father, Steve, says that he has had problems with alcohol in the past when he would have an evening where he could not stop drinking, although he said it was never a continual problem. "So when Megan got her problems, I realized that there were certainly elements there that were ... simply because of heredity as well as probably behavior that she saw," he said.

Megan has suffered from depression since childhood, and scientists in Indiana recently discovered a genetic link between alcoholism and depression. Scientists are hopeful that genetic breakthroughs, pushed by the Human Genome Project, will result in new treatments for alcoholism. Play video >>

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