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'Novelty seeking' linked to alcoholism

SEATTLE, June 26 (UPI) -- The personality trait "novelty seeking" and parental alcoholism can both increase risk of, and protect against, developing alcoholism, says a U.S. study.

"Disinhibitory personality traits" refer to risk-taking, exploratory, thrill-seeking and sometimes impulsive personality characteristics -- children, especially boys, who exhibit these characteristics have a high likelihood of becoming alcoholics as adults, according to Richard A. Grucza, an epidemiologist at Washington University School of Medicine.

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"High novelty seeking seems to amplify the risk associated with being from an alcoholic family, and vice versa: having a parent with alcoholism amplifies the risk associated with high novelty seeking," said Grucza. "While high novelty seeking amplifies the risk associated with parental alcoholism, low novelty seeking may diminish it -- people with an alcoholic parent who are low in novelty seeking may be at lower risk than normally expected."

In a family with parental alcoholism, not all children are at equal levels of risk -- kids with high novelty seeking may be at much greater risk, and kids with low novelty seeking may not be at as high of a risk as originally thought, according to Grucza.

The findings are published in the July issue of Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research.

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