PLATELET MAO ACTIVITY IN SUBTYPES OF ALCOHOLICS AND CONTROLS IN A HOMOGENOUS POPULATION

The level of platelet monoamine oxidase (MAO) activity has been found to vary between alcoholics and healthy controls and between subtypes o f alcoholics, in different populations. This study measured the MAO ac tivity in a group of 46 abstinent alcohol dependent subjects and 22 he althy non-alcoholic controls, male and female, in an ethnically homoge nous Irish population. The healthy control subjects had a mean MAO act ivity of 0.27 pmol/hr/10(5) platelets (+/- SEM 0.03), while the alcoho lics overall had a mean activity of 0.34 pmol/hr/10(5) platelets (+/- 0.03) and this difference was not significant, P = 0.2. When the alcoh olic group was divided into subtypes of alcoholism, (type 1 and type 2 ) there was no difference between subtypes of alcoholics nor between e ach subtype and the controls in their MAO activity. There was no corre lation between MAO activity and the age of the subjects, the duration of abstinence from alcohol, the severity of alcoholism, smoking status or the gender of the subjects. These data are discussed in the contex t of the current literature on alcoholism and platelet MAO in differen t ethnic populations and the status of platelet MAO as a potential mar ker for alcoholism. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved .