COOCCURRENCE AND COTRANSMISSION OF AFFECTIVE-DISORDERS AND ALCOHOLISMIN FAMILIES

The analysis of patterns of co-occurrence and cotransmission of affect ive disorders and alcoholism in families may provide clues for underst anding the excess comorbidity between these conditions in clinical set tings and in the general population. This paper reports the results of a family study of the relatives of patients with bipolar disorder, un ipolar depression and alcoholism, and combinations thereof. Excess com orbidity between affective disorders and alcoholism was observed in al l groups of relatives. However, the sharing of familial aetiological c omponents was not a major contributor to the excess comorbidity betwee n affective disorders and alcoholism. Unipolar depression and alcoholi sm segregated independently in families, whereas a modest correlation between familial components of alcoholism and bipolar disorder was obs erved.