INTRODUCTION TO PERSONALITY–BIOLOGICAL INTERACTIONS IN ALCOHOLISM: ‘THE MARKKU LINNOILA MEMORIAL SYMPOSIUM’

David S. Janowsky

Department of Psychiatry, CB#7175, School of Medicine, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC 27599-7175, USA

Received 22 December 1998; accepted 8 January 1999

Although a number of specific personality disorders, including anti-social personality, passive-dependent personality, and explosive personality, have been associated with the diagnosis of alcoholism, studies of the relationship of underlying personality and/or temperament to the nature, phenomenology, psychobiology, prognosis, and treatment of alcoholism have occurred much less frequently. However, there is a growing body of evidence that core or underlying personality and temperament are important determinants of vulnerability to becoming an alcoholic and of the nature of alcoholic subtypes. Furthermore, these personality and temperament variables appear linked to biological and/or genetic mechanisms. In parallel to human studies, experiments using rodents and primates have demonstrated animal behavioural characteristics, such as impulsivity, excessive or deficient behavioural inhibition, and a tendency to explore, which appear to parallel human personality characteristics, and these characteristics may predict genetically determined excessive alcohol consumption in animals.

This special section is devoted to the memory of our esteemed colleague, Dr Markku Linnoila, honouring his many contributions to the field of alcoholism research and specifically to the theme of this special section. It is derived from a symposium presented at the Ninth Congress of the International Society for Biomedical Research on Alcoholism (ISBRA), held during the period 27 June–2 July 1998 in Copenhagen, Denmark.

As a world renowned expert on serotonin, Dr Linnoila led a team that was widely recognized as the world's leading research group investigating serotonin and behaviour. His work was particularly focused on the relationship between serotonin and personality and he published numerous papers showing a relationship between the two. His 1983 landmark research paper investigating serotonin, fire-setting, and violence, bridged three disparate research fields: suicide, alcoholism, and aggression, and showed that the common link between these serotonin-mediated psychopathologies was impulsivity. While pursuing cutting-edge research with scientists in his homeland of Finland, where he was able to investigate the biological correlates of personality in violent offenders and alcoholics, he forged a relationship with those who were investigating non-human primate personality, leading to the first comprehensive non-human primate model linking serotonin and psychopathology. This model has been instrumental in understanding the biological and psychosocial correlates of Type 2-like excessive alcohol consumption.

In this special section, we explore the interface between alcoholism, heritable personality factors, and biological and/or genetic characteristics in clinical and preclinical groups. Specifically, my colleagues and I describe heritable personality characteristics of detoxifying alcoholics as measured by the Tridimensional Personality Questionnaire (TPQ) and the Myers Briggs Type Indicator. We discuss the relationship of these characteristics to short-term relapse following detoxification, to the degree of compliance with attendance at self-help groups, and to the differences in personality profiles between ‘pure' and ‘dual diagnosis' depressed alcoholics. Dr David Overstreet and colleagues present a variety of preclinical studies indicating the existence of specific behavioural characteristics, such as sweet preference and emotionality, in genetically determined alcohol- preferring rat lines. These alcohol-preferring lines differ on a number of other behaviours, such as general activity and stress-induced immobility. Dr Alexei Kampov-Polevoi and colleagues discuss the relationship between a preference for high concentrations of sucrose, elevations in TPQ Novelty Seeking and Harm Avoidance scales, and the diagnosis of alcoholism in humans. They also review preclinical studies showing a link between saccharin preference and a genetic propensity to prefer alcohol. Dr Elisabetta Marchiori and colleagues summarize their studies suggesting a relationship between measured emotional dependency and a diagnosis of alcoholism associated with personality disorder. Finally, Drs Dee Higley and Allyson Bennett discuss their and Dr Linnoila's work demonstrating an interface between alcoholism, impulsivity, violent behaviour, and specific molecular and/or genetic (i.e. allelic) characteristics of the central serotonin system. This work also reviews the observed serotonin deficiency in impulsive and/or violent primates (including humans) who, when exposed to alcohol, consume large quantities.

FOOTNOTES

Editor's note — The papers of this Symposium received full editorial attention, but were not subjected to peer review. (AA-BB)





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