EARLY DRINKING AND THE DEVELOPMENT OF ALCOHOLISM: A COMMENTARY ON SARTOR ET AL. (2007) Addiction (2007) 102 (2), 188–189.
MATT McGUE
Full Article
EARLY DRINKING AND THE DEVELOPMENT OF ALCOHOLISM: A COMMENTARY ON SARTOR ET AL. (2007) [Friday, February 2, 2007 The role of childhood risk factors in initiation of alcohol use and progression to alcohol dependence ]
Researchers have increasingly adopted developmental approaches to the study of alcoholism. As a consequence, we know that individuals who develop alcoholism differ from those who do not in, for example, early manifestations of personality [1]; risk of experiencing abuse [2]; and the attainment of developmental milestones [3].
They also differ in the age at which they first tried alcohol, the focus of research reported by Sartor et al. [4] in this issue of Addiction. In a highly influential paper, Grant & Dawson [5] reported a strong association between age at first drink (AFD) and risk of alcoholism.
Individuals who reported an AFD of less than 15 years were four times more likely to have been alcoholic as an adult than those reporting an AFD of greater than 20 years.
Sartor et al. begin by replicating the Grant & Dawson association: in their sample, individuals who first drank alcohol prior to age 14 were more than two times more likely to be alcoholic than those trying alcohol after age 16.
Importantly, they go on to show that an early AFD does not occur in isolation, but rather is associated with numerous other markers of alcoholism risk.
Individuals with an early AFD were more likely to have a diagnosis of conduct disorder or attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder, a family history of alcoholism, and come from a divorced family. None the less, they report that an early AFD is not associated with a rapid progression from the initial stages of drinking to alcohol dependence.
