Event related potentials in children of alcoholics

Assessment of ERPs (Event Related Potentials) is a special area of interest in research on vulnerability to alcoholism in human subjects. ERP not only provide information about potential neurofunctional anomalies in healthy individuals, but also relate those neurofunctional characteristics to the cognitive process involved. The aim of the present study is to evaluate the effects of chronic alcoholism and alcoholism risk on children of alcoholic fathers by using ERP parameters. 24 children of alcoholic fathers (9 boys, 15 girls) with a mean age of 18 +/- 3 (range: 15-25) and 17 control subjects (children of non-alcoholic fathers with out a family history of alcoholism) were included to the study. The age range was from 15 to 25 (mean: 21 +/- 3). N200 potential latency recorded from the parietal electrode position was significantly prolonged (p = 0.032) and amplitudes of P200 potential also recorded from the parietal region was significantly low (p = 0.043) relative to controls. However, the rest of the event-related potential parameters including P300 latency and amplitudes recorded from FZ, CZ, PZ electrode positions did not differ significantly from the children of non-alcoholic fathers. The difference in our results from the previous studies may be due to various factors. Genetic, gender, environmental, educational and social factors may have an overall effect on ERP and we believe these factors may be the cause of the differences seen in our study when compared to the previous ones. We believe the gender differences in our group may have had effected the overall results. Consecutive studies with more subject participation are needed to confirm and settle this issue.