RISK FOR ALCOHOLISM, ANTISOCIAL-BEHAVIOR, AND RESPONSE PERSEVERATION

Numerous studies have demonstrated the existence of an association bet ween alcoholism and antisocial personality (ASP). The present study te sted two hypotheses: First, that nonalcoholic men with a multigenerati onal familial history (MGH) of alcoholism would play more cards on a c ard task that has been shown previously to differentiate antisocial po pulations from normals and, second, that MGH subjects would display mo re evidence of ASP on two personality questionnaires: The Self-Report Psychopathy scale and the Socialization scale of the California Psycho logical Inventory. A total of 28 subjects (14 MGH and 14 family histor y negative for alcoholism [FH-]) were employed in this study. MGH subj ects played significantly more cards during the card task than did FH- subjects. However, the two groups did not differ on the ASP questionn aires. The possibility that a subtle frontal-lobe deficit, rather than ASP per se, underlies the poorer performance of the MGH males is disc ussed.