Sensation seeking, stress reactivity, and alcohol dampening discriminate the density of a family history of alcoholism.

Data collected from 95 nonalcoholic men who had either a multigenerational (MFH), unigenerational (UFH), or negative family history (FHN) of alcoholism were subjected to a discriminant function analysis to determine how well a set of variables differentiated between the family history groups. The data-set comprised personality measures (sensation seeking scales, neuroticism, and extroversion), measures of cardiovascular reactivity to unavoidable shock, and measures of the cardiovascular reactivity-dampening effects of alcohol. The discriminant analyses correctly classified 62% of all subjects, 75% of MFH subjects, 47% of UFH subjects, and 63% of FHN subjects. A canonical discriminant function analysis revealed one significant dimension (canonical variable) that differentiated between family history groups. The high density (MFH) family group scored positively on this dimension, while the UFH and FHN groups had negative mean scores on this variable. A MFH of alcoholism was characterized by a pattern of increased sensitivity to the cardiovascular reactivity-dampening effect of alcohol, cardiovascular hyperreactivity to unavoidable shock when sober, and the personality characteristic of experience seeking, which is associated with a desire for novel and unconventional experiences.