The Section of Clinical Assessment and Biological Correlates has two major functions (1) to recruit and assess alcoholics, controls and their families, for various investigators within the Laboratory of Clinical Studies; and (2) to conduct psychosocial and psychobiological studies of alcoholic families and their individual members. The Section staff continues to focus on coding and entering into a computer database the data collected since the inception of the Laboratory. A series of correlational studies comparing suicidal versus non-suicidal alcoholics on clinical, psychosocial and family variables has been carried out. In addition, the Section has collected data on the adult offspring of alcoholics and non-alcoholics, black and white, respectively; pilot efforts for a follow-up of matched black and white former patients of our inpatient unit has begun. Section staff has also been collaborating with the Laboratory of Human Neurogenetics in identifying and phenotyping several pedigrees for linkage analysis. Clinical expertise in the psychiatric assessment of children is critical for studies now completed and ongoing.
