The recruitment and assessment of families in which a diagnosis of primary alcoholism can be made for the identified patient remains a major effort of the Unit and provides us with a population of diagnostically appropriate research subjects for study. A particular focus this year has been the selection and evaluation of normal control subjects and their families able to participate in pharmacological as well as psychosocial studies conducted on the Research Ward and in the Outpatient Clinic. Studies of experiential factors in the occurrence of familial alcoholism from a multigenerational perspective, the identification of persons at risk, and studies of efficacious methods of intervention remain primary research objectives. In an ongoing homogeneous couples psychotherapy group, we are evaluating this modality as a cost-effective method for the treatment of both the alcoholism and marital and family conflicts of the married alcoholic patient. An adult children of alcoholics psychotherapy group is in place to assess the adaptive mechanisms of nonalcoholic offspring in order to compare these and other variables found in their alcoholic siblings. The fact that other psychiatric disorders coexist with alcoholism is known. Another ongoing study concerns the relationships of the appearance of affective disorders and alcoholism in a single large family pedigree. Affective disorders are of particular interest since, like alcoholism, they show evidence of genetic heritability and the existence of biological components. Data collection will continue until we have a sample of 200 alcoholic patients and their families and 50 normal control families.
