Paternal lineage of alcoholism, cohort effects, and alcoholism criteria

Adoption studies have led to the suggestion that there may be two distinct subgroups of alcoholics with differing genetic contributions. Among 249 male alcoholics we used discriminant analysis to relate the features of type 1 and type 2 alcoholism to the presence or absence of a family history of alcoholism in male paternal relatives. We found that guilt and binging, features usually attributed to type 1 (milieu-limited) alcoholism, were in fact more prevalent in the family history positive group. An additional cohort analysis found cohort-related variations in type 1/type 2 characteristics. The possible implications of these findings are discussed.