Family data concerning the hypothesis of hereditary predisposition toward alcoholism.

Abstract

There is evidence of unduly high frequencies of alcoholism, psychopathy and criminality among the relatives of alcoholics. Åmark (1951) found a frequency of alcoholism among the brothers and fathers of 645 Swedish alcoholics to be about 25 per cent. (Fremming's estimate of alcoholism among 1,730 males from the Danish population being 3·4 per cent.). In a more recent study of family data on 1,000 patients admitted to a Canadian mental hospital that included 56 patients with alcoholism, the present author (Gregory, 1959) found a recorded history of excessive drinking among 23·2 per cent. of the fathers of the alcoholics, among 1·8 per cent. of the mothers, and among 4·2 per cent. of their siblings. Allowing for the age and sex of these siblings, it would appear that there was a lifetime expectancy of excessive drinking of at least 14 per cent. among the brothers of these alcoholic patients. These figures compare with a minimal estimated lifetime expectancy of alcoholism amounting to 1·6 per cent. of the total population, or at least 2·7 per cent of the corresponding male population of Ontario.