ile intoxicated that those who had no childhood history, or whose family history included alcoholism but not ASP. This study suggests that behaviors surrounding alcohol consumption are influenced by factors other than simple familial risk. Behavioral disorders, whatever causes them, seem to have as much to do with the expression of alcohol dependence as does family history.7)The seventh and final study examined deals with the association between parental history of alcoholism and behavioral problems in Native American children from Southern California. The study was conducted upon 96 children from various Southern California reservations. The information for the study was gathered through a questionnaire that was filled out usually by the mother, which asked her to list the relatives who displayed significant alcohol related problems. This data was then analyzed along gender, age, and family history lines, to determine the various effects of family history of alcohol problems on the behavior of children.The results of the analysis were different for boys and girls. Among boys it was found that familial history had no influence over the age at which behavioral problems were observed. However, males with alcoholic relatives did prove to be more prone to behavioral problems of both internal and external nature, without regards to age of expression.The statistics on familial alcoholism as it relates to behavioral problems in children and adolescents is consistent with that for other ethnicities.Discussion:The first study claims in its introduction that genetic factors account for at least 40% of the risk of alcoholism. This kind of statistic should always be viewed with skepticism because there are too many variables. This study suggests that differences in risk of alcoholism are caused by the differences in beta-endorphin response. This claim is made because beta-endorphins produce many of the same effects attributed to alcohol. That is, t...
