We hypothesized that (i) higher levels of alcohol consumption would be associated with lower peripheral levels of plasma OT; (ii) regular alcohol use would be associated with OXTR polymorphisms previously linked to problematic alcohol use (e.g., A‐allele carriers of the OXTR rs53576); and (iii) greater alcohol use would be associated with epigenetic modification of OT function (i.e., greater DNA methylation of OXTR promoter regions). The gene discussed is OXTR; the disease is alcohol drinking.