Hostname: page-component-8448b6f56d-gtxcr Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-19T20:12:34.708Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Inheritance of Alcoholism in Adoptees

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 January 2018

Remi J. Cadoret  and
Ann Gath
Remi J. Cadoret
Affiliation:
University of Iowa College of Medicine, Department of Psychiatry, 500 Newton Road, Iowa City, Iowa 52242, USA
Ann Gath
Affiliation:
Borocourt Hospital, Wyfold, Reading, Berkshire RG4 9JD, England
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Summary

Among 84 adoptees, 18 years of age and older, separated at birth from their biological parents and without further contact with them, alcoholism was found more frequently in those whose relatives included an individual with alcoholism or in whom heavy drinking had been noted. Adoptee alcoholism did not correlate with any other diagnosis in a biological parent.

Childhood socialized conduct disorder was significantly higher in those adoptees who later received a diagnosis of alcoholism or suspected alcoholism, and was positively, but not significantly, related to heavy drinking or alcoholism in parents.

Age of adoptee, time spent in foster care, age of biological mother at the time of the birth, socio-economic status of adoptive home, psychopathology other than alcoholism in the biological background, and psychiatric or behavioural problems in the adoptive family (parents or sibs) were all unrelated to adult alcoholism in the adoptee.

Type
Papers
Information
The British Journal of Psychiatry , Volume 132 , Issue 3 , March 1978 , pp. 252 - 258
Copyright
Copyright © Royal College of Psychiatrists, 1978 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Amark, C. (1951) A study in alcoholism: clinical, social, psychiatric and genetic investigations. Acta Psychiatrica et Neurologica Scandinavica. Supplementum 70, 1–283.Google ScholarPubMed
Cadoret, R. (1976) Genetic determinants of alcoholism. Chapter 7 in Alcoholism (eds Tarter, R. and Sugerman, A.). Reading, Massachusetts: Addison-Wesley Co Google Scholar
Cadoret, R. & Gath, A. (in press) Biologic correlates of hyperactivity: evidence for a genetic factor. Paper presented 8 October 1976, Fort Worth, Texas, Society for Life History Research in Psychopathology. In press. (To be published in Society's biannual volume.) Google Scholar
Cahalan, D. & Cisin, I. (1976) Epidemiological and social factors associated with drinking problems. Chapter 14 in Alcoholism (eds Tarter, R. and Sugerman, A.). Reading, Massachusetts: Addison-Wesley Co Google Scholar
Crowe, R. (1975) Adoption studies in psychiatry. Biological Psychiatry, 10, 353–71.Google Scholar
Feighner, J., Robins, E., Guze, S., Woodruff, R., Winokur, G. & Munoz, R. (1972) Diagnostic criteria for use in psychiatric research. Archives of General Psychiatry, 26, 57–63.Google Scholar
Goodwin, D. (1976) Is Alcoholism Hereditary? New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Goodwin, D., Schulsinger, F., Hermansen, L., Guze, S. & Winokur, G. (1973) Alcohol problems in adoptees raised apart from alcoholic biological parents. Archives of General Psychiatry, 28, 238–43.Google Scholar
Goodwin, D., Schulsinger, F., Hermansen, L., Guze, S. & Winokur, G. (1975) Alcoholism and the hyperactive child syndrome. Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease, 160, 349–53.Google Scholar
Hutchings, B. & Mednick, S. (1974) Registered criminality in the adoptive and biological parents of registered male adoptees. In Genetics, Environment and Psychopathology (eds Mednick, S., Schulsinger, F., Higgins, J. and Bell, B.). Amsterdam: North-Holland Publishing Co Google Scholar
Robins, E. & Guze, S. (1972) Classification of affective disorders: the primary-secondary, the endogenous-reactive, and the neurotic-psychotic concepts. In Recent Advances in the Psychobiology of the Depressive Illnesses: Proceedings of a Workshop Sponsored by NIMH (eds Katz, M. M. and Sheld, J. Jr). Washington, DC: US Govt Printing Office Google Scholar
Roe, A. & Burks, B. (1945) Adult adjustment of foster-children of alcoholic and psychotic parentage and the influence of the foster-home. Memoirs of the Section on Alcohol Studies, Yale University, New Haven. Quarterly Journal of Studies on Alcohol, No. 3.Google Scholar
Rosenthal, D. (1970) Genetic Theory and Abnormal Behavior. New York: McGraw-Hill.Google Scholar
Rutter, M., Shaffer, D. & Sturge, C. (1975) A guide to a multi-axial classification scheme for psychiatric disorders in childhood and adolescence. Dept of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Institute of Psychiatry, De Crespigny Park, London SE5 8AF, England.Google Scholar
Schuckit, M., Rimmer, J., Reich, T. & Winokur, G. (1970) Alcoholism: antisocial traits in male alcoholics. British Journal of Psychiatry, 117, 575–6.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Submit a response

eLetters

No eLetters have been published for this article.