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Absence of visual and auditory P300 reduction in nondepressed male and female alcoholics
S Y Hill1, J Locke, S R Steinhauer
1Department of Psychiatry, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic, Pennsylvania, USA.
Background:
The P300 component of the event-related potential has been extensively studied as a possible neurobiological risk marker for the development of alcoholism. Although P300 amplitude reduction has frequently been documented in high-risk children, studies of adult alcoholics are inconsistent.
Methods:
P300 amplitude from 121 adult alcoholics was compared to 68 controls utilizing event-related potential paradigms from the auditory and visual modalities. All participants were evaluated clinically with psychiatric interviews and administered the MMPI.
Results:
Male alcoholics did not show a reduction in amplitude in either the auditory or visual modality. Female alcoholics showed reduced P300 amplitude, but only when a comorbid lifetime diagnosis of depression was present. Similar results were found using current depressed mood (Scale 2 from the MMPI).
Conclusions:
No differences in P300 amplitude were found between alcoholics and controls unless comorbid depression was present. Therefore, P300 amplitude reduction seen in children at high-risk for developing alcoholism seems to represent a neurodevelopmental delay that normalizes by adulthood.