OVERT BEHAVIOR PROBLEMS AND SEROTONERGIC FUNCTION IN MIDDLE CHILDHOODAMONG MALE AND FEMALE OFFSPRING OF ALCOHOLIC FATHERS

A large body of literature indicates that the serotonergic system is i nvolved in behavioral regulation, as evidenced by the inverse relation ship between impulsive aggression and serotonergic function found in a dult alcoholics and nonalcoholics. However, studies of this relationsh ip among child and adolescent offspring of alcoholics (COAs) have not previously been done. This study examines the potentially parallel rel ationship between behavioral dysregulation and low serotonergic functi on in young COAs. The relationship is of potential interest as a pheno typic marker of biological vulnerability to aggressiveness, which itse lf has been hypothesized to be a risk factor for later antisocial alco holism. The present work is part of an ongoing prospective study of th e development of risk for alcohol abuse/dependence and other problemat ic outcomes in a sample of families subtyped by the fathers' alcoholis m classification. We examined the relationship between overt behavior problems in middle childhood (mean age = 10.5 +/- 1.7 years) and whole blood serotonin (5-HT) in a subsample of the offspring (N = 32 boys a nd 12 girls). Using a Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL) index of behavio ral under-control, we obtained results indicating that high total beha vior problem (TBP) children had lower levels of whole blood 5-HT than did low-TBP children (p < 0.01). These results support the hypothesis that there is an inverse relationship between whole blood serotonin le vels and behavior problems in young male and female CCAs. A father's a lcoholism status was not significantly related to his child's 5-HT lev el, i.e., the child's phenotypic expression of behavioral dysregulatio n was more reliably connected to serotonergic function than was patern al alcoholism.