Impulsive Behavior Linked to Risk of Alcoholism

Finding could lead to new approaches to help those with drinking problem, researchers say.

By Steven Reinberg
HealthDay Reporter
Thursday, January 4, 2007; 12:00 AM

Copyright © 2007 ScoutNews, LLC. All rights reserved.

THURSDAY, Jan. 4 (HealthDay News) -- A lack of impulse control may be a warning sign for an increased risk of alcoholism, a new study suggests.

The researchers said they substantiated their finding by showing reduced inhibitory activity in the frontal lobes of the brains of alcoholics.

The study, by scientists at the State University of New York Downstate Medical Center, is published in the January issue of the journal Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research.

"We have been finding that alcoholics have a low amplitude of a particular brain wave," said Bernice Porjesz, a professor and director of the Henri Begleiter Neurodynamics Laboratory at the center. "We have also found it in their offspring, even though they have not had any exposure to alcohol," she added.

Porjesz noted that, in children, signs of problems controlling impulses can signal a risk of substance abuse, behavior and learning problems.

The brain signal in question is linked with the inability to inhibit matters that are irrelevant, and it appears to be present in people who become alcoholics, Porjesz explained. "It may make them more vulnerable to becoming an alcoholic," she said.

Porjesz also found that even non-alcoholics with impulsive behaviors have the reduced frontal lobe brain activity while doing tasks that require focusing and using the frontal lobes.

Although this condition is probably genetic, Porjesz is quick to note that poor impulse control is not a cause of alcoholism. "There is no alcoholism gene," she said.

In the study, Porjesz's group evaluated 57 alcoholics and compared them with 58 healthy adults. All those in the study were tested with a standard visual task, in which they had to press a button only when they saw rarely occurring target stimuli -- in this case, the letter X, which was embedded in a series of other letters.

During the test, the researchers recorded brain waves, using 61 scalp electrodes to measure P3 amplitudes. P3 amplitudes reflect levels of neural inhibition in the central nervous system -- the larger the P3, the more the inhibition. Porjesz's team also measured impulsiveness with a standard questionnaire filled out by the study participants.