Citation

Corral MM, Holguín SR, Cadaveira F. J. Stud. Alcohol 1999; 60(4): 509-513.

Affiliation

Departamento de Psicoloxía Clínica e Psicobioloxía, Facultade de Psicoloxía, Universidade de Santiago de Compostela, Coruña, Spain.

Copyright

(Copyright © 1999, Rutgers Center of Alcohol Studies)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

10463807

Abstract

OBJECTIVE: The purpose of high-risk studies is to find characteristics that allow the identification of subjects with a higher vulnerability to alcoholism. The aim of this research was to verify if the familial density criterion is useful for subtyping children of alcoholics with different neuropsychological characteristics. METHOD: A battery of neuropsychological tests was administered to 102 boys and girls of 7-15 years of age; 66 were children of alcoholics with a high (n = 32) and low (n = 34) familial density of alcoholism, and 36 were children of nonalcoholic fathers with a negative family history of the disorder. The battery included tests to assess attention, visuospatial abilities and frontal functions. RESULTS: MANCOVAs showed that high-density children scored lower than children of nonalcoholic fathers in attentional and visuospatial tasks. There were no differences between low-density and negative family history children in these cognitive domains. CONCLUSIONS: These results suggest that children of alcoholics are not a homogeneous group. Children with multigenerational alcoholism, but not children with an alcoholic father, showed reduced performance in specific cognitive areas.

Language: en