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Comparisons of the Cognitive Functioning of Familial and Nonfamilial Alcoholics

Arthur I. Alterman, Linda J. Gerstley, Gerald Goldstein, Ralph E. Tarter

Alcoholic men ( N = 81) participating in a Veterans Administration inpatient program were classified using four different strategies to describe the extent of familial alcoholism. These classification schemes included: ( 1 ) a comparison of alcoholics with no familial alcoholism, parental alcoholism or alcoholism in other relatives, ( 2 ) a unilineal-bilineal approach, ( 3 ) a multigenerational approach and ( 4 ) an approach that quantified the degree of familial alcoholism. Comparisons were made of the performance of the different familial history groups on a series of neuropsychological tests. No differences in cognitive functioning were found using any of the four classification schemes.