ALCOHOLISM AND PANIC DISORDER - COOCCURRENCE AND COTRANSMISSION IN FAMILIES

The co-occurrence of alcoholism and anxiety disorders in epidemiologic al and clinical samples is well established. Self-medication of anxiet y disorder probands with the anxiolytic substance alcohol might be one reason for this association. Common susceptibility factors of both di sorders might be alternative explanations. Controlled family studies r ecruiting probands with panic disorder and alcoholism are powerful too ls to answer this question. A family study of this kind, however, is n ot available. The present study investigated 113 families of probands with either panic disorder or alcoholism or both (but without affectiv e or psychotic disorders) and 80 families of healthy controls in order to estimate the degree of co-occurrence of the two disorders in non-t reated samples of relatives and to explore the magnitude of overlap be tween susceptibility factors of the two disorders. The co-occurrence o f the two disorders was relatively rare in all samples of families und er study. Overlap of susceptibility factors was demonstrated by an ele vated risk of alcoholism in relatives of probands with panic disorder.