Alcoholic children of alcoholics.

Abstract

of the fathers and 8.0% of the mothers of female alcoholic probands. When estimated rates of alcoholism in a general population have been compared with those in the families of alcoholics (4-7), men alcoholics have been found to be 2.2 times as likely as men in the general population to have an alcoholic father and 1.6 times as likely to have an alcoholic mother; women alcoholics were 3.3 times as likely to have an alcoholic father and 2.4 times as likely to have an alcoholic mother. The present study attempted to determine the rates of alcoholism in parents of alcoholics, by sex of child and sex of parent, and the characteristics that differentiate alcoholics who have two, one or no alcoholic parents. Previous family studies (e.g., 8) have investigated only the risk and severity of alcoholism in the children of alcoholics. No study has reported risks of morbidity, lifetime risks, or the differential effects of having two, one or no alcoholic parents (9). Since the risk of alcoholism may be expected to be higher in children of two alcoholics than in children of one or no alcoholics, the results would have implications for both genetic and environmental theories of alcoholism.