are children of alcoholics really different?
Erblich J; Earleywine M; Erblich B; Bovbjerg DH Biobehavioral Medicine Program, Derald H. Ruttenberg Cancer Center, Mount Sinai School of Medicine, One Gustave L. Levy Place, Box 1130, New York, NY 10029-6574, USA. joel.erblich@mssm.edu Children of alcoholics (COAs) have an increased risk of developing alcoholism themselves. The mechanisms responsible are not yet known. One compelling theory postulates that COAs may have an increased sensitivity to the stimulant effects of alcohol during the ascending limb of the blood alcohol curve combined with a decreased sensitivity to the putatively undesirable sedative effects of the drug during the descending limb, providing a particularly strong motivation to drink. Consistent with this theory, we hypothesized that compared to children of nonalcoholics (CONAs), COAs would display higher levels of ascending limb stimulation and lower levels of descending limb sedation. In the present study, 100 college students, who were either COAs (n=18) or CO
