[Genetic aspects of alcoholism (concerning the basis for dividing mental disorders into endogenous and exogenous)]

A conclusion has been made on the basis of a number of genetic biochemical markers and dermatoglyphic peculiarities of the hands of patients with chronic alcoholism and patients with mental retardation (MR) of exogenic-organic nature that hereditary predisposition exists not only in relation to endogenic functional and organic psychoses but also in cases of exogenous mental abnormalities. It has been suggested that the hereditary predisposing factor is determined by genotype characteristics, and flexible constellations of additive isoalleles varying in individual diseases and their different clinical forms. It is suggested that the division of psychoses into endo- and exogenous ones is not absolute from the genetic viewpoint.