A failure to find empirical support for Beardslee and Vaillant's prediction about alcoholism

Recent studies have proposed that the personality pathology in alcoholics is probably a result, not a cause, of alcohol intake. Thus, 19 male alcoholic veterans were assessed to determine whether there was a positive correlation between personality pathology and lifetime amount of absolute alcohol consumed. A multiple regression analysis of the data showed that there was no evidence for a statistically significant positive correlation between the lifetime amount of absolute alcohol consumed and personality pathology. The only statistically significant correlation found was a negative correlation between personality pathology and age, a finding consistent with some other recent studies.