A multivariate model of adjustment was used to examine the role of moderator variables hypothesized to provide insight into the adjustment of children of alcoholics. The moderator variables (family environment, social support and coping behaviors) were assessed retrospectively. Present adjustment was also assessed using the Depression-Proneness Rating Scale and the Tennessee Self-Concept Scale....

Certain similarities between the Washingtonian movement of the nineteenth century and the present day fellowship of Alcoholics Anonymous have been commented upon by a number of observers. In view of this resemblance there is more than historical interest in an account of the first movement in the United States which brought about a large-scale rehabilitation of alcoholics. The phenomenal rise a...

The non-invasive technique of transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) was used in 62 chronic alcoholics to assess the functional status of descending motor pathways. The main aims of this study were: to investigate asymptomatic upper motor neuron dysfunction in alcoholics as well as to assess its relationship with parameters reflecting the intensity of exposure to alcohol; and to evaluate a pos...

OBJECTIVE To assess the validity of alcoholic typology in an Irish private hospital population. METHOD We interviewed a randomly selected group of inpatient and outpatient alcoholics (N = 48, 42 male) in a private hospital in Ireland. Subjects had a structured psychiatric interview, including completion of a severity of alcohol dependence questionnaire, a Hamilton depression rating scale and ...

This study was designed to assess the baseline noradrenergic turnover of subgroups of postwithdrawal abstinent alcoholics and healthy controls. The method chosen was an overnight fasting urine sample of the breakdown product of norepinephrine, MHPG, related to urinary creatinine. A comparison was made with platelet monoamine oxidase activity and also within subgroups of the study population. Th...

Aims: The Cloninger type 1 alcoholics are prone to anxiety, and in many cases patients have begun to use alcohol in order to relieve their anxiety. We have previously reported a decrease of the serotonin transporter density in the perigenual anterior cingulate cortex (pACC) in type 1 alcoholics. The 5-HT1A receptors are the binding sites for anxiolytic drug buspirone. We aimed to investigate th...

Heart Rate Variability (HRV) is the measure of time difference between two successive heart beats and its variation occurring due to internal and external stimulation causes. HRV is a non-invasive tool for indirect investigation of both cardiac and autonomic system function in both healthy and diseased condition. It has been speculated that HRV analysis by nonlinear method might bring potential...

Chronic excessive alcohol intoxications evoke cumulative damage to tissues and organs. We examined prefrontal cortex (Brodmann's area (BA) 9) from 20 human alcoholics and 20 age, gender, and postmortem delay matched control subjects. H & E staining and light microscopy of prefrontal cortex tissue revealed a reduction in the levels of cytoskeleton surrounding the nuclei of cortical and subcortic...

The assessment of cortisol levels in human hair has recently been suggested to provide a retrospective index of cumulative cortisol exposure over periods of up to 6 months. The current study examined the utility of hair cortisol analysis to retrospectively detect hypercortisolism during active drinking phases in alcoholics in acute withdrawal (n=23), the normalisation of cortisol output in abst...