Childhood hyperactivity, gender, and Cloninger's personality dimensions in alcoholics

Cloninger described a classification system for subtyping alcoholics based on personality dimensions of novelty seeking (NS), harm avoidance (HA), and reward dependence (RD). The relationship between these dimensions and childhood hyperactivity was examined. Mild to moderate alcohol-dependent adults (68 male and 34 female) were administered Tarter's HK/MBD Childhood Symptom Checklist, Cloninger's Tridimensional Personality Questionnaire, and the Beck Depression Inventory. Alcoholics with childhood hyperactivity (38% of sample), regardless of gender, exhibited greater NS than did alcoholics without childhood hyperactivity. Female alcoholics scored significantly higher on RD compared to males. Findings suggest that high NS, proposed by Cloninger as a predominantly male feature, is related to childhood hyperactivity, independent of gender.