Personality pathology and drinking in young men at high and low familial risk for alcoholism

Three groups varying in familial alcoholism risk were compared with respect to amount of alcohol consumption, presence of personality pathology, and the relationship between personality pathology and alcohol consumption.

Research subjects were young adult men recruited from local colleges, a trade school and the community. The risk groups included (1) a group with a biological alcoholic father and significant additional familial alcoholism (n = 106); (2) subjects with an alcoholic father, but without significant additional familial alcoholism (n = 100); and (3) a group with no paternal alcoholism and at most only one second/third-degree alcoholic relative (n = 190). Absolute daily ounces of alcohol was determined using a standard quantity-frequency scale. Prevalence of DSM-III-R personality disorders (PDs) was evaluated using the Personality Disorder Questionnaire-Revised both with and without application of an impairment and distress scale. Familial risk determination was based on agreement between four separate self-report assessments.

The first group consumed significantly more alcohol than the other two groups, which did not differ in alcohol consumption. The first group's subjects were more likely to meet criteria for virtually all of the PD diagnoses than were the other two groups. A greater proportion of the second group's subjects qualified for various PDs than did the third group's subjects. Personality pathology was consistently or usually associated with more drinking in the first and third groups, respectively, but associated with less consumption in the second group.

Young men with high-density familial alcoholism are at greater risk for the development of alcoholism than those with alcoholic fathers and little additional familial alcoholism. Relationships between personality pathology and alcohol consumption, and possibly the development of alcoholism, differ for the three risk groups.