ers to see if they would react differently after birth to the two substances than do the controls. The observation was that the rats that were given both alcohol and cineole did indeed form an association between the two, and that they reacted differently both to their mothers, cineole, and suckling than did the controls. This supports the hypothesis that rats can form associations based on substances, specifically alcohol, in a prenatal environment. These associations affect how the animals react to the chemicals, and to their mothers, after birth.A point that can be taken from the findings of these studies is that a fetus may learn associations with alcohol that carry over into the postnatal world. The implications of this are large. If rats are capable of such learning, then humans probably are. The alcohol level in the mother was observed to be nearly the same as that in the fetus. This means that if a mother drinks during pregnancy, apart from the know dangers of this, the child can make associations based on the alcohol that will carry over into how the organism reacts to alcohol later in life.The last two studies deal not specifically with genetics, but with childhood and parental behavioral problems that correlate with alcoholism. The first of these deals with Japanese prisoners, a large percentage of whom are alcoholic Whatever the cause for behavioral problems, they seem to have influenced alcohol use, and reactions to it, more than risk factor. This study is important to an understanding of the genetics of alcoholism risk because it shows that alcoholism can be influenced, if not caused, by separate factor that is either learned or inherited from the parents.The final study examined in this paper deals with severe conduct disorder among children of alcoholic Native-Americans. Most of the children of alcoholics (COAs) displayed behavioral disorders, whether internal or external.This study is quite questionable, however. First ...
