This Article  • References  • Full text PDF  • Reply to article  • Send to a friend  • Save in My Folder  • Save to citation manager  • Permissions  Citing Articles  • Citation map  • Citing articles on HighWire  • Citing articles on Web of Science (49)  • Contact me when this article is cited  Related Content  • Similar articles in this journal  Social Bookmarking   What's this?

A Test of Sex-Linked Transmission of Alcohol Abuse

Lennart Kaij, MD; Jan Dock, ML

Arch Gen Psychiatry. 1975;32(11):1379-1381.

Abstract
• To test the hypothesis of a sex-linked factor influencing the occurrence of alcoholism and alcohol abuse, alcoholism or abuse rates were compared for 136 sons of the sons vs 134 sons of the daughters of 75 alcoholics.

No substantial difference between the groups of grandsons was found in frequency of officially registered alcoholism or alcohol abuse, or both, which suggests no sex-linked factor is involved. The total sample was also used to calculate the risk of such registration for the grandsons; the rate of registration by the grandsons' fifth decade of life was 43%, approximately three times that of the general male population, and even higher than the equivalent rate in brothers of alcoholics. This result is incompatible with an assumption of a recessive gene being involved in the occurrence of alcoholism, though it fits with the assumption of a dominant gene.

Author Affiliations
From the Department of Psychiatry, University of Lund, Malmö, Sweden.

Footnotes
Accepted for publication Nov 7, 1974.

Reprint requests to the Psykiatriska Kliniken, Lunds Universitet, Malmö Allmänna Sjukhus, 214 01 Malmö, Sweden (Dr Kaij).

CiteULike    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    Twitter     What's this?

THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES

A Family Study of Alcohol Dependence: Coaggregation of Multiple Disorders in Relatives of Alcohol-Dependent Probands
Nurnberger et al.
Arch Gen Psychiatry 2004;61:1246-1256.
ABSTRACT | FULL TEXT  

An Intriguing Association Between Ancestral Mortality and Male Affective Disorder
Vaillant et al.
Arch Gen Psychiatry 1992;49:709-715.
ABSTRACT  

Family History of Alcoholism in Violent Offenders and Impulsive Fire Setters
Linnoila et al.
Arch Gen Psychiatry 1989;46:613-616.
ABSTRACT  

Inheritance of Alcohol Abuse: Cross-Fostering Analysis of Adopted Men
Cloninger et al.
Arch Gen Psychiatry 1981;38:861-868.
ABSTRACT  

Alcoholism and Heredity: A Review and Hypothesis
Goodwin
Arch Gen Psychiatry 1979;36:57-61.
ABSTRACT