A study of young men with alcoholic close relatives

In this first stage of a prospective investigation, the author found that 14% of 304 male university students and employees responding to a questionnaire had alcoholic first-degree relatives. While these 44 men had demographic and alcohol-intake characteristics similar to those of the other subjects, they had significantly more alcohol, drug, and psychiatric problems. These findings are consistent with reports of an enhanced risk for future alcoholism in young men with alcoholic relatives. This study demonstrates the feasibility of surveying populations of young men to identify individuals at hypothesized risk for alcoholism and reinforces the need for prospective studies of alcoholism in different groups.