Three studies are proposed which examine CNS dysfunction in family history positive and negative community alcoholic men and women, as manifested on neuropsychological (NP) tests and 3 classes of evoked brain potentials (EP) obtained 3 to 6 weeks post- detoxification. The NP tests measure verbal, abstracting/problem-solving, learning/memory and perceptual- motor functions. The EP paradigms, set within and information processing context, measure auditory and visual functional integrity and neural mechanisms that indicate aspects of selective attention and stimulus evaluation. Both NP & EP tasks have been shown previously to be sensitive to alcoholisms' effects. Seven major aims are addressed. The first two aims (Study A) are concerned with the 1) recovery of NP and EP functions at one- year post-treatment retest, 2) the prediction of recidivism from NP and EP variables, and changes in NP and EP performance as a function of background variables such as family history, severity of alcoholism, affective distress, childhood symptoms of attention deficit disorders and hyperactivity. Study B compares a male VA sample of alcoholics to our community males with the aims of 3) confirming the hypothesis that the VA sample will have more NP and EP deficits and 4) exploring a new dimension of family history analyses in which NP and EP performances will be compared in FH+ alcoholics with a father alcoholic vs. FH+ alcoholics where another primary relative is alcoholic vs. FH-alcoholics.
Aim 5 investigates NP and EP differences in Cloningers' Type 1 and Type 2 alcoholics based on recent findings of our current study and the relationship of antisocial and depressive symptoms to Types 1 and 2 and to NP deficits.
Aim 6) investigates the psychosocial correlates of FH+ and FH-alcoholics as a function of Type 1 and 2 membership. Study C has the major aim 7) of comparing a new sample of detoxified female alcoholics with our previous one and investigating the role of FH+, FH-, Type 1 and Type 2 in EP and NP performance as well as psychosocial correlates. The results of these proposed studies will be relevant to issues and questions surrounding NP and EP impairment in male and female alcoholics and the determinants of the individual differences with respect to the expression of these deficits. The results will be of interest to alcohol clinicians and researchers, psychologists, psychiatrists, rehabilitation specialists and other mental health workers.
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