THE NATURAL-HISTORY OF ALCOHOLISM

Over the past 55 years, two longitudinal studies have been monitoring the drinking behaviors and their consequences of several hundred men f rom adolescence and early adulthood to old age. The studies identified co-occurring sociopathy, cultural factors (e.g., ethnicity), and gene tic factors (i.e., a family history of alcoholism) as risk factors for alcoholism. In most alcoholics, the disease had a progressive course, resulting in increasing alcohol abuse or stable abstinence. However, some alcoholics exhibited a nonprogressive disease course and either m aintained a stable level of alcohol abuse or returned to asymptomatic drinking, Long-term return to controlled drinking however was a rare a nd unstable outcome, Formal treatment, with the exception of attending Alcoholics Anonymous, did not appear to affect the men's long-term ou tcomes, whereas several non-treatment-related factors were important f or achieving stable recovery.