A genomewide association study of smoking relapse in four European population-based samples.

OBJECTIVES: Genomewide association studies (GWAS) have identified clear evidence of genetic markers for nicotine dependence. Other smoking phenotypes have been tested, but the results are less consistent. The tendency to relapse versus the ability to maintain long-term abstinence has received little attention in genetic studies; thus, our aim was to provide a better biological understanding of this phenotype through the identification of genetic loci associated with smoking relapse. METHODS: We carried out a GWAS on data from two European population-based collections, including a total of 835 cases (relapsers) and 990 controls (abstainers). Top-ranked findings from the discovery phase were …