The EEG in persons at risk for alcoholism.

Alcoholics tend to have a relatively small amount of alpha and a large amount of beta activity in their EEG. This pattern may be a consequence or an antecedent of alcoholism. Attempts to demonstrate this EEG pattern in subjects who were at high risk (HR) for alcoholism (because they had alcoholic fathers) have yielded equivocal results. However, electrophysiological changes elicited by a single dose of alcohol differentiated HR subjects from controls. The HR subjects exhibited greater increases of slow-alpha energy and greater decreases of fast-alpha energy after alcohol administration than controls. In another study, the HR subjects showed a greater decrease of a late positive component of the auditory-evoked potential after alcohol than controls. Thus the HR subjects show greater electrophysiological responses to alcohol than controls. These effects are not related to differences in alcohol metabolism, and they may reflect a biologic marker for CNS sensitivity to alcohol. Alternative interpretations of these findings are discussed and suggestions for further research are offered.