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Importance: Alcohol consumption is one of the leading preventable causes of burden of disease worldwide. Selective prevention of alcohol use can be effective in delaying the uptake and reducing harmful use of alcohol during the school years; however, little is known about the durability of these effects across the significant transition from early adolescence into late adolescence and early adulthood., Objective: To examine the sustained effects of a selective personality-targeted alcohol use prevention program on alcohol outcomes among adolescents who report high levels of 1 of 4 personality traits associated with substance use., Design, Setting, and Participants: A cluster randomized clinical trial was conducted to assess the effectiveness of the selective personality-targeted PreVenture program on reducing the growth of risky alcohol use and related harms from early to late adolescence and early adulthood. Participants included grade 8 students attending 14 secondary schools across New South Wales and Victoria, Australia, in 2012 who screened as having high levels of anxiety sensitivity, negative thinking, impulsivity, and/or sensation seeking. Schools were block randomized to either the PreVenture group (7 schools) or the control group (7 schools). The primary end point of the original trial was 2 years post baseline; the present study extends the follow-up period from July 1, 2017, to December 1, 2019, 7 years post baseline. Data were analyzed from July 22, 2021, to August 2, 2022., Interventions: The PreVenture program is a 2-session, personality-targeted intervention designed to upskill adolescents to better cope with their emotions and behaviors., Main Outcomes and Measures: Self-reported monthly binge drinking, alcohol-related harms, and hazardous alcohol use measured by the Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test-Concise consumption screener., Results: Of 438 participants (249 male [56.8%]; mean [SD] age, 13.4 [0.5] years) from 14 schools, 377 (86.2%) provided follow-up data on at least 2 occasions, and among those eligible, 216 (54.0%) participated in the long-term follow-up. Compared with the control condition, the PreVenture intervention was associated with reduced odds of any alcohol-related harm (odds ratio [OR], 0.81 [95% CI, 0.70-0.94]) and a greater mean reduction in the frequency of alcohol-related harms (β = -0.22 [95% CI, -0.44 to -0.003]) at the 7.0-year follow-up. There were no differences in the odds of monthly binge drinking (OR, 0.80 [95% CI, 0.56-1.13]) or hazardous alcohol use (OR, 0.87 [95% CI, 0.59-1.27]) at the 7.0-year follow-up. Exploratory analyses at the 5.5-year follow-up showed that compared with the control condition, the PreVenture intervention was also associated with reduced odds of monthly binge drinking (OR, 0.87, [95% CI, 0.77-0.99]) and hazardous alcohol use (OR, 0.91 [95% CI, 0.84-0.99]), but this was not sustained., Conclusions and Relevance: This study demonstrated that a brief selective personality-targeted alcohol use prevention intervention delivered in the middle school years can have sustained effects into early adulthood., Trial Registration: anzctr.org.au Identifier: ACTRN12612000026820.

Early initiation of polysubstance use (PSU) is a strong predictor of subsequent addiction, however scarce individuals present resilience capacity. This neuroimaging study aimed to investigate structural correlates associated with cessation or reduction of PSU and determine the extent to which brain structural features accounted for this resilient outcome. Participants from a European community-based cohort self-reported their alcohol, tobacco and cannabis use frequency at ages 14, 16 and 19 and had neuroimaging sessions at ages 14 and 19. We included three groups in the study: the resilient-to-PSU participants showed PSU at 16 and/or 14 but no more at 19 (n = 18), the enduring polysubstance users at 19 displayed PSU continuation from 14 or 16 (n = 193) and the controls were abstinent or low drinking participants (n = 460). We conducted between-group comparisons of grey matter volumes on whole brain using voxel-based morphometry and regional fractional anisotropy using tract-based spatial statistics. Random-forests machine-learning approach generated individual-level PSU-behavior predictions based on personality and neuroimaging features. Adolescents resilient to PSU showed significant larger grey matter volumes in the bilateral cingulate gyrus compared with enduring polysubstance users and controls at ages 19 and 14 (p<0.05 corrected) but no difference in fractional anisotropy. The larger cingulate volumes and personality trait "openness to experience" were the best precursors of resilience to PSU. Early in adolescence, a larger cingulate gyrus differentiated adolescents resilient to PSU, and this feature was critical in predicting this outcome. This study encourages further research into the neurobiological bases of resilience to addictive behaviors., (Copyright © 2021. Published by Elsevier B.V.)

Background: A range of school-based prevention programs has been developed and used to prevent, delay, or reduce alcohol use among adolescents. Most of these programs have been evaluated at the community-level impact. However, the effect of contextual risk factors has rarely been considered in the evaluation of these programs. The aim of this study was to investigate the potential moderating effects of 2 important contextual risk factors (i.e., socioeconomic status [SES] and peer victimization) on the effectiveness of the school-based personality-targeted interventions (Preventure program) in reducing adolescent alcohol use over a 2-year period using a cluster-randomized trial., Methods: High-risk adolescents were identified using personality scores on the Substance Use Risk Profile Scale and randomized to intervention and control groups. Two 90-minute cognitive behavioral therapy-based group sessions targeted 1 of 4 personality risk profiles: Anxiety Sensitivity, Hopelessness, Impulsivity, or Sensation Seeking. Multilevel linear modeling of alcohol use, binge drinking, and drinking-related harm was conducted to assess the moderating effect of baseline peer victimization and SES., Results: Results indicated that the Preventure program was equally beneficial to all adolescents, regardless of SES and victimization history, in terms of their alcohol outcomes and related harm. Receiving the intervention was additionally beneficial for adolescents reporting peer victimization regarding their alcohol-related harm compared to nonvictimized youth (β = -0.29, SE = 0.11, p = 0.014)., Conclusions: Findings suggest that the content of personality-targeted interventions is beneficial for all high-risk youth regardless of their SES or experience of peer victimization. The current study suggests that using targeted approaches, such as targeting underlying personality risk factors, may be the most appropriate substance use prevention strategy for high-risk youth, as it is beneficial for all high-risk youth regardless of their contextual risk factors., (© 2019 by the Research Society on Alcoholism.)

In many societies, the majority of adults regularly consume alcohol. However, only a small proportion develops alcohol addiction. Individuals at risk often show a high sensation-seeking/low-anxiety behavioural phenotype. Here we asked which role EF hand domain containing 2 (EFhd2; Swiprosin-1) plays in the control of alcohol addiction-associated behaviours. EFhd2 knockout (KO) mice drink more alcohol than controls and spontaneously escalate their consumption. This coincided with a sensation-seeking and low-anxiety phenotype. A reversal of the behavioural phenotype with β-carboline, an anxiogenic inverse benzodiazepine receptor agonist, normalized alcohol preference in EFhd2 KO mice, demonstrating an EFhd2-driven relationship between personality traits and alcohol preference. These findings were confirmed in a human sample where we observed a positive association of the EFhd2 single-nucleotide polymorphism rs112146896 with lifetime drinking and a negative association with anxiety in healthy adolescents. The lack of EFhd2 reduced extracellular dopamine levels in the brain, but enhanced responses to alcohol. In confirmation, gene expression analysis revealed reduced tyrosine hydroxylase expression and the regulation of genes involved in cortex development, Eomes and Pax6, in EFhd2 KO cortices. These findings were corroborated in Xenopus tadpoles by EFhd2 knockdown. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) in mice showed that a lack of EFhd2 reduces cortical volume in adults. Moreover, human MRI confirmed the negative association between lifetime alcohol drinking and superior frontal gyrus volume. We propose that EFhd2 is a conserved resilience factor against alcohol consumption and its escalation, working through Pax6/Eomes. Reduced EFhd2 function induces high-risk personality traits of sensation-seeking/low anxiety associated with enhanced alcohol consumption, which may be related to cortex function.

Background: Onset of alcohol use by 14 relative to 21 years of age strongly predicts elevated risk for severe alcohol use problems, with 27% versus 4% of individuals exhibiting alcohol dependence within 10 years of onset. What remains unclear is whether this early alcohol use (i) is a marker for later problems, reflected as a pre-existing developmental predisposition, (ii) causes global neural atrophy or (iii) specifically disturbs neuro-maturational processes implicated in addiction, such as executive functions or reward processing. Since our group has demonstrated that a novel intervention program targeting personality traits associated with adolescent alcohol use can prevent the uptake of drinking and binge drinking by 40 to 60%, a crucial question is whether prevention of early onset alcohol misuse will protect adolescent neurodevelopment and which domains of neurodevelopment can be protected., Methods: A subsample of 120 youth at high risk for substance misuse and 30 low-risk youth will be recruited from the Co-Venture trial (Montreal, Canada) to take part in this 5-year follow-up neuroimaging study. The Co-Venture trial is a community-based cluster-randomised trial evaluating the effectiveness of school-based personality-targeted interventions on substance use and cognitive outcomes involving approximately 3800 Grade 7 youths. Half of the 120 high-risk participants will have received the preventative intervention program. Cognitive tasks and structural and functional neuroimaging scans will be conducted at baseline, and at 24- and 48-month follow-up. Two functional paradigms will be used: the Stop-Signal Task to measure motor inhibitory control and a modified version of the Monetary Incentive Delay Task to evaluate reward processing., Discussion: The expected results should help identify biological vulnerability factors, and quantify the consequences of early alcohol abuse as well as the benefits of early intervention using brain metrics.

Objective: This study aims to explore the mechanisms of personality-targeted intervention effects on problematic drinking, internalizing and externalizing symptoms., Method: As part of a cluster-randomized trial, 1,210 high-risk students (mean age 13.7 years) in 19 London high schools (42.6% White, 54% male) were identified using the Substance Use Risk Profile Scale. Intervention school participants were invited to participate in personality-matched interventions by trained school staff. MacKinnon's products of coefficients method was used to compare 3 complementary mechanism hypotheses, namely, whether early changes in (a) alcohol use, (b) internalizing and externalizing symptoms, or (c) personality during the 6 months postintervention accounted for intervention effects over 2 years., Results: Early intervention effects on drinking behaviors during the 6 months postintervention partially accounted for longer term intervention effects on the onset of binge drinking (95% confidence interval [CI] [-.349, -.062]) and drinking problems (95% CI [-.206, -.016]) over 2 years. Intervention effects on anxiety symptoms and conduct problems were partially mediated by early reductions in depressive symptoms (95% CI [-.013, -.001]; 95% CI [-.047, -.001]), and intervention effects on internalizing symptoms were also partially mediated by reductions in anxiety sensitivity (95% CI [-.003, 0])., Conclusions: 2-year intervention effects on problematic drinking were largely accounted for by early changes in drinking behaviors, and were not mediated by changes in mental health symptoms or personality risk factors. Early improvements in mood and anxiety sensitivity partially mediated longer term reductions in mental health problems., ((c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved).)

Objective: The genetic component of alcohol use disorder is substantial, but monozygotic twin discordance indicates a role for nonheritable differences that could be mediated by epigenetics. Despite growing evidence associating epigenetics and psychiatric disorders, it is unclear how epigenetics, particularly DNA methylation, relate to brain function and behavior, including drinking behavior., Method: The authors carried out a genome-wide analysis of DNA methylation of 18 monozygotic twin pairs discordant for alcohol use disorder and validated differentially methylated regions. After validation, the authors characterized these differentially methylated regions using personality trait assessment and functional MRI in a sample of 499 adolescents., Results: Hypermethylation in the 3'-protein-phosphatase-1G (PPM1G) gene locus was associated with alcohol use disorder. The authors found association of PPM1G hypermethylation with early escalation of alcohol use and increased impulsiveness. They also observed association of PPM1G hypermethylation with increased blood-oxygen-level-dependent response in the right subthalamic nucleus during an impulsiveness task., Conclusions: Overall, the authors provide first evidence for an epigenetic marker associated with alcohol consumption and its underlying neurobehavioral phenotype.

A comprehensive account of the causes of alcohol misuse must accommodate individual differences in biology, psychology and environment, and must disentangle cause and effect. Animal models can demonstrate the effects of neurotoxic substances; however, they provide limited insight into the psycho-social and higher cognitive factors involved in the initiation of substance use and progression to misuse. One can search for pre-existing risk factors by testing for endophenotypic biomarkers in non-using relatives; however, these relatives may have personality or neural resilience factors that protect them from developing dependence. A longitudinal study has potential to identify predictors of adolescent substance misuse, particularly if it can incorporate a wide range of potential causal factors, both proximal and distal, and their influence on numerous social, psychological and biological mechanisms. Here we apply machine learning to a wide range of data from a large sample of adolescents (n = 692) to generate models of current and future adolescent alcohol misuse that incorporate brain structure and function, individual personality and cognitive differences, environmental factors (including gestational cigarette and alcohol exposure), life experiences, and candidate genes. These models were accurate and generalized to novel data, and point to life experiences, neurobiological differences and personality as important antecedents of binge drinking. By identifying the vulnerability factors underlying individual differences in alcohol misuse, these models shed light on the aetiology of alcohol misuse and suggest targets for prevention.

Background: Alcohol misuse amongst young people is a serious concern. The need for effective prevention is clear, yet there appear to be few evidenced-based programs that prevent alcohol misuse and none that target both high and low-risk youth. The CAP study addresses this gap by evaluating the efficacy of an integrated approach to alcohol misuse prevention, which combines the effective universal internet-based Climate Schools program with the effective selective personality-targeted Preventure program. This article describes the development and protocol of the CAP study which aims to prevent alcohol misuse and related harms in Australian adolescents., Methods/design: A cluster randomized controlled trial (RCT) is being conducted with Year 8 students aged 13 to 14-years-old from 27 secondary schools in New South Wales and Victoria, Australia. Blocked randomisation was used to assign schools to one of four groups; Climate Schools only, Preventure only, CAP (Climate Schools and Preventure), or Control (alcohol, drug and health education as usual). The primary outcomes of the trial will be the uptake and harmful use of alcohol and alcohol related harms. Secondary outcomes will include alcohol and cannabis related knowledge, cannabis related harms, intentions to use, and mental health symptomatology. All participants will complete assessments on five occasions; baseline; immediately post intervention, and at 12, 24 and 36 months post baseline., Discussion: This study protocol presents the design and current implementation of a cluster RCT to evaluate the efficacy of the CAP study; an integrated universal and selective approach to prevent alcohol use and related harms among adolescents. Compared to students who receive the stand-alone universal Climate Schools program or alcohol and drug education as usual (Controls), we expect the students who receive the CAP intervention to have significantly less uptake of alcohol use, a reduction in average alcohol consumption, a reduction in frequency of binge drinking, and a reduction in alcohol related harms., Trial Registration: This trial is registered with the Australian and New Zealand Clinical Trials registry, ACTRN12612000026820.

Individual variation in reward sensitivity may have an important role in early substance use and subsequent development of substance abuse. This may be especially important during adolescence, a transition period marked by approach behavior and a propensity toward risk taking, novelty seeking and alteration of the social landscape. However, little is known about the relative contribution of personality, behavior, and brain responses for prediction of alcohol use in adolescents. In this study, we applied factor analyses and structural equation modeling to reward-related brain responses assessed by functional magnetic resonance imaging during a monetary incentive delay task. In addition, novelty seeking, sensation seeking, impulsivity, extraversion, and behavioral measures of risk taking were entered as predictors of early onset of drinking in a sample of 14-year-old healthy adolescents (N=324). Reward-associated behavior, personality, and brain responses all contributed to alcohol intake with personality explaining a higher proportion of the variance than behavior and brain responses. When only the ventral striatum was used, a small non-significant contribution to the prediction of early alcohol use was found. These data suggest that the role of reward-related brain activation may be more important in addiction than initiation of early drinking, where personality traits and reward-related behaviors were more significant. With up to 26% of explained variance, the interrelation of reward-related personality traits, behavior, and neural response patterns may convey risk for later alcohol abuse in adolescence, and thus may be identified as a vulnerability factor for the development of substance use disorders.

Objective: To examine the long-term effects of a personality-targeted intervention on drinking quantity and frequency (QF), problem drinking, and personality-specific motivations for alcohol use in early adolescence., Method: A randomized control trial was carried out with 364 adolescents (median age 14) recruited from 13 secondary schools with elevated scores in Hopelessness, Anxiety-Sensitivity (AS), Impulsivity, and Sensation-Seeking. Participants were randomly assigned to a control no-intervention condition or a 2-session group coping skills intervention targeting 1 of 4 personality risk factors. The effects of the intervention on quantity/frequency (QF) of alcohol use, frequency of binge drinking, problem drinking, and motives were examined at 6, 12, 18, and 24 months postintervention., Results: Intent-to-treat repeated measures analyses revealed a significant overall intervention effect in reducing problem drinking symptoms, and a Time × Intervention effect on drinking QF and binge drinking frequency. Relative to the control group, the intervention group showed significantly reduced drinking and binge drinking levels at 6 months postintervention and reduced problem drinking symptoms for the full 24-month follow-up period (Cohen's d = 0.33). A significant Time × Intervention × Personality interaction was demonstrated for coping and enhancement drinking motives. In addition to an overall effect of intervention on coping motives, the AS group who received that intervention reported fewer coping motives compared with the AS control group at 12 and 24 months postintervention., Conclusions: This study provides further evidence showing that personality-targeted interventions reduce drinking behavior in adolescents in the short term. Novel findings were that the interventions were shown to produced long-term effects on drinking problems and personality-specific effects on drinking motives., ((PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved).)

Background: A great deal of research has emerged on the comorbidity between alcohol misuse and psychological symptoms (e.g., depression, anxiety, and antisocial behavior or conduct disorder) in adolescence. Research has also shown that personality traits underlie vulnerability to alcohol use and psychological symptoms, but how personality moderates this association has not been comprehensively examined. The goals of this study are to clarify (i) whether early alcohol use effects the rate of change of psychological symptoms and vice versa, (ii) whether initial levels and rate of change in both domains vary according to individual differences in personality traits, and (iii) whether personality moderates the relationship between alcohol use and psychological symptoms., Methods: Self-reported alcohol use, depression, anxiety, and antisocial behavior were collected from 393 adolescents at four separate time points across an 18-month period. Parallel growth models were used to assess the main objectives of the study. Personality traits [anxiety sensitivity (AS), hopelessness (H), impulsivity (IMP), and sensation seeking (SS)] were included as time-invariant predictors of initial levels and rates of change of each construct., Results: The results indicated that elevated levels of depression predicted faster rates of increase in alcohol use. Personality-specific relationships were demonstrated across all models. IMP was shown to moderate the relationship between alcohol use and depression, suggesting that adolescents who showed a susceptibility to elevated levels of IMP, and heavier drinking were less likely to demonstrate a normative decline in depression. Adolescents with higher levels of AS and anxiety were more likely to show a faster rate of increase in alcohol use., Conclusions: These results highlight the importance of examining personality traits in studying the associations between alcohol use and psychological symptoms., (Copyright © 2011 by the Research Society on Alcoholism.)

Background: Personality factors are implicated in the vulnerability to adolescent alcohol misuse. This study examined whether providing personality-targeted interventions in early adolescence can delay drinking and binge drinking in high-risk youth., Methods: A randomised control trial was carried out with 368 adolescents recruited from years 9 and 10 (median age 14) with personality risk factors for substance misuse. Participants received either a personality-targeted intervention or no intervention. Outcome data were collected on alcohol use through self-reports at 6 and 12-month post intervention and analyses were conducted on the full intent to treat sample., Results: Multi-group analysis of a latent growth curve model showed a group difference in the growth of alcohol use between baseline and 6-months follow-up, with the control group showing a greater increase in drinking than the intervention group for this period. Interventions were particularly effective in preventing the growth of binge drinking in those students with a sensation seeking (SS) personality. SS drinkers in the intervention group were 45% and 50% less likely to binge drink at 6 (OR = .45) and 12 months (OR = .50) respectively, than SS drinkers in the control group, p = .001, phi = .49, Number Needed to Treat = 2.0., Conclusions: Considering the robust, inverse relationship between age of onset of alcohol use and later alcohol dependence, this intervention strategy may prove effective in preventing the onset of adult alcohol use disorders, by helping high-risk youth delay the growth of their drinking to a later developmental stage.

Sensation seeking, anxiety sensitivity, and hopelessness are personality risk factors for alcohol use disorders, each associated with specific risky drinking motives in adolescents. We developed a set of interventions and manuals that were designed to intervene at the level of personality risk and associated maladaptive coping strategies, including alcohol misuse. Manuals contained psychoeducational information on the target personality risk factor and how it is associated with maladaptive coping, as well as exercises targeting maladaptive cognitions and behaviors specific to each personality type. We tested the efficacy of these novel interventions on reducing drinking behavior by randomly assigning 297 Canadian high school students (56% girls, mean age 16, mean grade 11) to personality-targeted interventions (group format; 2 sessions) or to a no-treatment control group. Intent-to-treat analyses indicated beneficial effects of the intervention and Intervention x Personality interactions on drinking rates, drinking quantity, binge drinking, and problem drinking symptoms at 4-month follow-up.

Female substance abusers recruited from the community were randomly assigned to receive 1 of 3 brief interventions that differentially targeted their personality and reasons for drug use. The 90-min interventions were: (a) a motivation-matched intervention involving personality-specific motivational and coping skills training, (b) a motivational control intervention involving a motivational film and a supportive discussion with a therapist, and (c) a motivation-mismatched intervention targeting a theoretically different personality profile. Assessment 6 months later (N = 198) indicated that only the matched intervention proved to be more effective than the motivational control intervention in reducing frequency and severity of problematic alcohol and drug use and preventing use of multiple medical services. These findings indicate promise for a client-treatment matching strategy that focuses on personality-specific motives for substance abuse.

This study explored the validity of classifying a community-recruited sample of substance-abusing women (N = 293) according to 4 personality risk factors for substance abuse (anxiety sensitivity, introversion-hopelessness, sensation seeking, and impulsivity). Cluster analyses reliably identified 5 subtypes of women who demonstrated differential lifetime risk for various addictive and nonaddictive disorders. An anxiety-sensitive subtype demonstrated greater lifetime risk for anxiolytic dependence, somatization disorder, and simple phobia, whereas an introverted-hopeless subtype evidenced a greater lifetime risk for opioid dependence, social phobia, and panic and depressive disorders. Sensation seeking was associated with exclusive alcohol dependence, and impulsivity was associated with higher rates of antisocial personality disorder and cocaine and alcohol dependence. Finally, a low personality risk subtype demonstrated lower lifetime rates of substance dependence and psychopathology.

Purpose: We investigated the psychometric properties (factor structure, internal consistency reliability, concurrent validity) of the Short Form Inventory of Drinking Situations (IDS-42) in women substance abusers., Methods: A sample of 297 substance-abusing women was recruited from the community. The women completed the IDS-42 and the three-factor Drinking Motives Questionnaire (DMQ)., Results: Confirmatory factor analyses of IDS-42 items suggested a hierarchical structure for the scale. Eight factors (corresponding to Marlatt and Gordon's eight heavy drinking situations) provided the best model fit at the lower-order level, and three factors (i.e., Negatively Reinforcing vs. Positively Reinforcing vs. Temptation Situations) provided the best model fit at the higher-order level. Lower- and higher-order IDS-42 subscales were shown to possess adequate-to-high levels of internal consistency. The eight lower-order IDS-42 factors demonstrated excellent concurrent validity with conceptually similar DMQ subscale scores. Across the entire sample of female substance abusers, a higher frequency of heavy drinking was reported in Positively Reinforcing Situations and Unpleasant Emotions Situations, as compared to other heavy drinking situations., Implications: Results support the IDS-42's good psychometric properties and demonstrate its utility as a tool in identifying situation-specific antecedents to heavy drinking among women substance abusers.

The present study examines the relationship of familial and personality risk factors for alcoholism to individual differences in sensitivity to the positively and negatively reinforcing properties of alcohol. Sixteen sons of male alcoholics with multigenerational family histories of alcoholism (MFH) and 11 men who self-report heightened sensitivity to anxiety (HAS) were compared with 13 age-matched family history negative, low anxiety sensitive men (FH-LAS) on sober and alcohol-intoxicated response patterns. We were interested in the effects of alcohol on specific psychophysiological indices of "stimulus reactivity," anxiety, and incentive reward. Alcohol significantly dampened heart rate reactivity to aversive stimulation for the MFH and HAS men equally, yet did not for the FH-LAS group. HAS men evidenced idiosyncrasies with respect to alcohol-induced changes in electrodermal reactivity to aversive stimulation (an index of anxiety/fear-dampening), and MFH men demonstrated elevated alcohol-intoxicated resting heart rates (an index of psychostimulation) relative to the FH-LAS men. The results are interpreted as reflecting a sensitivity to the "stimulus reactivity-dampening" effects of alcohol in both high-risk groups, yet population-specific sensitivities to the fear-dampening and psychostimulant properties of alcohol in the HAS and MFH groups, respectively.

Thirty nonalcoholic young (18 to 30 years) males with extensive multigenerational family histories of male alcoholism and 29 age-matched, family history-negative controls completed a variety of trait personality questionnaires, participated in a competitive stress task (while sober and alcohol-intoxicated), and were assessed for self-report and laboratory drinking behavior. Low academic achievement, disinhibited personality (as measured by the P Scale of the Eysenck Personality Questionnaire), and sensitivity to alcohol reinforcement were significant and powerful independent predictors of self-report (approximate R2 = 0.40, p < 0.0001) and laboratory (approximate R2 = 0.20, p < 0.0001) drinking behavior. There seemed to be some specificity with respect to the facets of drinking behavior accounted for by each independent variable: low academic achievement and sensitivity to alcohol reinforcement were more related to quantity of alcohol consumption and frequency of excessive consumption, whereas psychoticism was more related to self-reported negative consequences with alcohol. A cluster analysis on three identified correlates of drinking behavior indicated that the two experimental groups could be more accurately subdivided into three homogeneous types. Multigenerational family history males were disproportionately represented in two of these groups: one characterized by enhanced sensitivity to alcohol reinforcement and the other characterized by high psychoticism scores and alcohol-related problems.

Although self-report data are generally evaluated as reliable, validity estimates for self-reported drinking behavior are not as favorable. A new method of measurement addressing problems currently associated with the questionable validity of self-report drinking information is introduced. Study 1 tests the correspondence between the new measure (occasions per year blood alcohol level exceeded 0.08%), traditional self-report measures, and laboratory alcohol consumption. The novel measure correlated most strongly with volume of alcohol consumed in the laboratory compared to the traditional measures. In Study 2 the novel measure was favored over a traditional measure when discriminating between the presence and absence of problem-drinking symptoms.

The present study investigated cardiac response to acute alcohol challenge along the blood alcohol concentration (BAC) curve in two groups of young adult nonalcoholic men with (MFH) and without (FH-) multigenerational family histories of alcoholism, matched for drinking history. BACs and resting heart rate measurements were recorded every 10 min for 3 hr after ingestion of a 1.0 ml/kg dose of 95% USP alcohol at two different rates: one of 20 min (slow drinking) and the other of 5 min (fast drinking). Several analyses of variance were performed for each of the dependent measures [BAC and heart rate change from baseline (HRCH)]. A significant risk x BAC phase interaction emerged from the HRCH analysis, indicating that the MFH group was characterized by a significantly greater increase in resting heart rate along the ascending limb of the BAC curve. A significant risk x BAC phase x rate interaction indicated that, when alcohol was consumed at a faster rate, men with multigenerational family histories of alcoholism demonstrated a greater HRCH, which persisted throughout the BAC curve.

Both sons of male alcoholics with multigenerational family history of male alcoholism (MFH) and sons of essential hypertensives (HTs) exhibit elevated psychophysiological reactivity to stress when compared with male controls (FH-). MFHs also demonstrate a significant baseline heart rate increase and stress-response dampening following alcohol consumption. The present study investigates the specificity of this alcohol-induced psychophysiological response pattern by testing these two risk groups in a shock response paradigm, both sober and alcohol-intoxicated. A repeated measures analysis of variance on sober and alcohol-intoxicated heart rate reactivity yielded a significant risk by alcohol interaction, indicating that alcohol consumption led to a greater decrease in reactivity in the MFH group compared with the HT and FH- groups. Similar results were obtained for muscle tension measures. MFHs also displayed greater increases in resting baseline heart rate and muscle tension when alcohol intoxicated. The results may reflect a sensitivity to negatively and positively reinforcing effects of alcohol specific to individuals with multigenerational familial histories of alcoholism.