High levels of sensitivity to alcohol in young adult Jewish men: a pilot study.

This article compares the intensity of response to ethanol in 15 men who reported having Jewish mothers and fathers with the responses of 15 non-Jews who have a close alcoholic relative (FHP) and 15 non-Jews who have no such family history (FHN). After matching the three groups on demography and drinking history, there were no differences on their expectations of the effects of alcohol, nor on the blood alcohol concentrations following the consumption of 0.75 ml/kg of ethanol. However, the men who considered themselves as having a Jewish heritage evidenced significantly more intense subjective feelings after the alcohol challenge, with a similar but nonsignificant trend observed for their level of postdrinking body sway.