Serotonergic function, behavioral disinhibition, and negative affect in children of alcoholics: The moderating effects of puberty

Background: Serotonergic (5-HT) dysfunction has been implicated in both beh avioral disinhibition and negative affect in adults. Although our group's p revious work found decreased whole blood 5-HT in high versus low behavior p roblem children of alcoholics, some child/adolescent studies report conflic ting results, and 5-HT's role in negative affect has been largely unexamine d. Age-related developmental factors may play a role in these relationships . Methods: This report is from an ongoing prospective study of the developmen t of risk for alcohol abuse/dependence and other problematic outcomes in a sample of families subtyped by father's alcoholism classification. The pres ent study extends previous work and examines relationships between whole bl ood 5-HT and both child behavioral disinhibition (an aggression index from the Child Behavior Checklist) and negative affect (Child Behavior Checklist Anxious/Depressed scale) in offspring from 47 families (N = 45 boys and 17 girls, mean age = 10.88 +/- 2.03 yr). Results: The most important finding was that puberty moderated relationship s between 5-HT and both behavioral disinhibition and negative affect with a relationship for pubescent children (n = 14, r = -0.54, p = 0.05; r. = -0. 57, p = 0.04, respectively) but no relationship for prepubescent children ( n = 48, r = 0.05, p = 0.75; r = -0.15,p = 0.31, respectively). Conclusions: The moderating effects of puberty may help clarify inconsisten cies in child/adolescent literature. Furthermore, there appears to be a rel ationship between 5-HT and negative affect which parallels that between 5-H T and behavioral disinhibition. Pubertal status may be an important variabl e to evaluate as a moderator in relation to the developmental context of th e role 5-HT dysfunction may play in various models of behavior related to a lcoholism over the early life course.