Twitchell G R, Hanna G L, Cook E H, Fitzgerald H E, Little K Y, Zucker R A
Michigan State University/University of Michigan Longitudinal Study, East Lansing, USA.
Alcohol Clin Exp Res. 1998 Sep;22(6):1340-8.
A large body of literature indicates that the serotonergic system is involved in behavioral regulation, as evidenced by the inverse relationship between impulsive aggression and serotonergic function found in adult alcoholics and nonalcoholics. However, studies of this relationship among child and adolescent offspring of alcoholics (COAs) have not previously been done. This study examines the potentially parallel relationship between behavioral dysregulation and low serotonergic function in young COAs. The relationship is of potential interest as a phenotypic marker of biological vulnerability to aggressiveness, which itself has been hypothesized to be a risk factor for later antisocial alcoholism. The present work is part of an ongoing prospective study of the development of risk for alcohol abuse/dependence and other problematic outcomes in a sample of families subtyped by the fathers' alcoholism 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 and 12 girls). Using a Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL) index of behavioral undercontrol, we obtained results indicating that high total behavior 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 levels and behavior problems in young male and female COAs. A father's alcoholism status was not significantly related to his child's 5-HT level, i.e., the child's phenotypic expression of behavioral dysregulation was more reliably connected to serotonergic function than was paternal alcoholism.
大量文献表明，血清素能系统参与行为调节，这在成年酗酒者和非酗酒者身上发现的冲动性攻击行为与血清素能功能之间的负相关关系中得到了证实。然而，此前尚未对酗酒者（COAs）的儿童和青少年后代之间的这种关系进行研究。本研究探讨了年轻COAs中行为失调与低血清素能功能之间可能存在的平行关系。这种关系作为对攻击性生物易感性的一种表型标记可能具有研究价值，而攻击性本身被认为是后期反社会型酗酒的一个风险因素。目前的工作是一项正在进行的前瞻性研究的一部分，该研究旨在探讨在一个根据父亲酗酒情况分类的家庭样本中，酒精滥用/依赖风险及其他问题后果的发展情况。我们在一个子样本（32名男孩和12名女孩）的后代中，研究了童年中期（平均年龄 = 10.5 +/- 1.7岁）的明显行为问题与全血血清素（5-HT）之间的关系。使用儿童行为清单（CBCL）中行为失控指数，我们得到的结果表明，总行为问题（TBP）高的儿童全血5-HT水平低于TBP低的儿童（p < 0.01）。这些结果支持了这样一种假设，即年轻的男性和女性COAs中，全血血清素水平与行为问题之间存在负相关关系。父亲的酗酒状况与孩子的5-HT水平没有显著关联，也就是说，孩子行为失调的表型表达与血清素能功能的联系比与父亲酗酒的联系更为可靠。
