Pattern reversal visual evoked potentials after alcohol administration among men at risk for alcoholism

Prediction of mortality at age 40 in Danish males at high and low risk for alcoholism

OBJECTIVE

This prospective high-risk study examined the influence of father's alcoholism and other archival-generated measures on premature death.

METHOD

Sons of alcoholic fathers (n = 223) and sons of non-alcoholic fathers (n = 106) have been studied from birth to age 40. Archival predictors of premature death included father's alcoholism, childhood developmental data, and diagnostic information obtained from the Psychiatric Register and alcoholism clinics.

RESULTS

By age 40, 21 of the 329 subjects had died (6.4%), a rate that is more than two times greater than expected. Sons of alcoholic fathers were not more likely to die by age 40. Premature death was associated with physical immaturity at 1-year of age and psychiatric/alcoholism treatment. No significant interactions were found between risk and archival measures.

CONCLUSION

Genetic vulnerability did not independently predict death at age 40. Death was associated with developmental immaturities and treatment for a psychiatric and/or substance abuse problem.

N-methyl-D-aspartate glutamate receptors and alcoholism: reward, dependence, treatment, and vulnerability

This review takes a translational neuroscience perspective on the role of glutamate systems in human ethanol abuse and dependence. Ethanol is a simple molecule with profound effects on many chemical systems in the brain. Glutamate is the primary excitatory neurotransmitter in the brain. Glutamatergic systems are targets for the actions of ethanol via its antagonism of the N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) subtype of the glutamate receptor and other mechanisms. The modulation of glutamatergic function by ethanol contributes to both euphoric and dysphoric consequences of ethanol intoxication. Adaptations within glutamatergic systems appear to contribute to ethanol tolerance and dependence and to both acute and protracted features of ethanol withdrawal. Perhaps because of the important glutamatergic mediation of the behavioral effects of ethanol, glutamatergic systems appear to contribute to the vulnerability to alcoholism, and novel glutamatergic agents may play a role in the treatment of ethanol abuse and dependence.

Frontal P300 decrements in antisocial personality disorder

Event-related potentials (ERPs) were recorded from 83, 21- to 25-year-old nonalcoholic men varying in alcoholism vulnerability due to the presence/absence of an alcoholic family history or a personal history of antisocial personality disorder. ERPs were elicited by a visual oddball task in which the target was presented more frequently than the nontarget, in order to elicit impulsive or perseverative responding. Analyses of N200 and P300 revealed no group differences in the nontarget response. However, analyses of the target response revealed a significantly smaller P300 in the antisocial personality (ASP)+ group compared with the ASP- groups. The P300 decrement was limited to frontal electrode sites and is interpreted as indicating the presence of subtle anterior brain dysfunction among ASP+ subjects.

Familial alcoholism: family, twin adoption and high risk studies

The nature-nurture question in the etiology of alcoholism is discussed. The research results from twin and adoption studies indicate a considerable genetic (= biological) component in the etiology of alcoholism. A longitudinal high risk study of alcoholism is presented. The sons of alcoholic men and matched controls have been followed prospectively since before birth. The main results from previous phases of the study and a recent 30-year follow-up assessment are presented.

A 30-year follow-up study of the sons of alcoholic men

The nature-nurture question in the etiology of alcoholism is discussed. The research results from twin and adoption studies indicate a considerable genetic (= biological) component in the etiology of alcoholism. A longitudinal high-risk study of alcoholism is presented. The sons of alcoholic men and matched controls have been followed prospectively since before birth. The main results from previous phases of the study and a recent 30-year follow-up assessment are presented.

Information processing, neuropsychological function, and the inherited predisposition to alcoholism

Sons of male alcoholics are at particularly heightened risk for the development of alcoholism. This heightened risk frequently appears in association with increased incidence of conduct disorder or hyperactivity, with deficits in abstract thinking and poor school performance, with abnormalities in cued psychophysiological response, and with increased sensitivity to the putatively stress-response-dampening effects of alcohol intoxication. This risk and its associated features are discussed within the context of a neuropsychological theory, predicted on the notions (1) that deficits in cognitive functions theoretically dependent upon the intact functioning of the prefrontal cortex could underlie manifestation of the idiosyncracies commonly attributed to sons of male alcoholics, and (2) that acute alcohol intoxication could relieve the subjective discomfort associated with the consequences of such deficits.