Is this something a doctor could have actually detected years ago? [Addiction gene?]

Hello. I am going to try and keep this anonymous about this friend of mine. This friend once told me that when they were young [maybe 10 years ago] a doctor told them that they had some special gene that if they ever drank alcohol they would get stupid levels of addictive without fail.

Now I am not trying to get this friend to drink alcohol at all or even encouraging it [even with them being of legal age] as I don't really drink but once or twice a year myself. However, this sounded unrealistic to me, at least as of 10 or so years ago.

Is there any reasonable chance this could be true [not that they have an addictive gene, but a doctor knowing about this and telling them], or is this just BS they said to keep this person from drinking alcohol [probably influenced by the parent telling the doctor to say this? Or the parent saying the doctor said this?]

Well, give me a minute to try my Google-fu.

EDIT: This is one of the first things I found. It appears to be from the University of Utah? It basically says that some people are more susceptible to addiction than others and people that are more susceptible to addiction may have a harder time sobering up.

Sounds like the kind of thing that might have a grain of truth that you then rachet up to 11 in order to make a lesson stick in your mind and scare you away from it.

Maybe he or she was the family's doctor or knew the family had a history? Addiction does tend to run in the fam.

Yeah I understand that some people may be more susceptible, but to be able to pick this person out with a basic doctor's appointment as a kid seems a bit unrealistic to me? At least so many years ago it does? And then saying it basically is guaranteed that this is the case with this person?

I don't think there is a family history as they are LDS[Mormon] and so pretty much no alcohol ever in that family but could be the case.

Saying anything is 'guaranteed' certainly seems alarmist and kind of irresponsible from a Doctor.

A medical geneticist would know more about that than a regular family doctor.

Sounds like a doctor who uses the old scare tactics. It's impossible to get hooked on alcohol after one drink. It takes the righg (well the wrong) combination of circumstances to generate addiction. There certainly is a genetic component but that does not guarantee anything. If you have alcoholics in your family you should be carefull not to fall in the same trap but total abstinence is a bit radical. In fact I would say that it could be healthier (psychologically)to at least try it. Something that is a "forbidden fruit" can become very atractive in the wrong circumstances.