Comparisons of the cognitive functioning of familial and nonfamilial alcoholics

Alcoholic men (N = 81) participating in a Veterans Administration inpatient program were classified using four different strategies to describe the extent of familial alcoholism. These classification schemes included: (1) a comparison of alcoholics with no familial alcoholism, parental alcoholism or alcoholism in other relatives, (2) a unilineal-bilineal approach, (3) a multigenerational approach and (4) an approach that quantified the degree of familial alcoholism. Comparisons were made of the performance of the different familial history groups on a series of neuropsychological tests. No differences in cognitive functioning were found using any of the four classification schemes.