DIFFERENTIAL SENSITIVITY TO ALCOHOL REINFORCEMENT IN GROUPS OF MEN ATRISK FOR DISTINCT ALCOHOLISM SUBTYPES

The present study examines the relationship of familial and personalit y risk factors for alcoholism to individual differences in sensitivity to the positively and negatively reinforcing properties of alcohol. S ixteen sons of male alcoholics with multigenerational family histories of alcoholism (MFH) and 11 men who self-report heightened sensitivity to anxiety (HAS) were compared with 13 age-matched family history neg ative, low anxiety sensitive men (FH-LAS) on sober and alcohol-intoxic ated response patterns, We were interested in the effects of alcohol o n specific psychophysiological indices of ''stimulus reactivity,'' anx iety, and incentive reward. Alcohol significantly dampened heart rate reactivity to aversive stimulation for the MFH and HAS men equally, ye t did not for the FH-LAS group. HAS men evidenced idiosyncrasies with respect to alcohol-induced changes in electrodermal reactivity to aver sive stimulation (an index of anxiety/fear-dampening), and MFH men dem onstrated elevated alcohol-intoxicated resting heart rates (an index o f psychostimulation) relative to the FH-LAS men. The results are inter preted as reflecting a sensitivity to the ''stimulus reactivity-dampen ing'' effects of alcohol in both high-risk groups, yet population-spec ific sensitivities to the fear-dampening and psychostimulant propertie s of alcohol in the HAS and MFH groups, respectively.