Alcoholism in Brazil--the role of personality and susceptibility to stress.

One hundred alcohol-dependent Brazilian males were investigated in relation to variables dealing with the course of alcoholism, family history and behaviour. Seven of the most representative were standardized and then subjected to a factor analysis. The factors thus obtained were afterwards included in a cluster analysis, which identified three groups of alcoholics. Two of these groups agree with those established on recent previous classifications, while the third revealed a characteristic not identified in these typologies: lower levels of stress. Other distinctive features were lower scores of harm avoidance and higher proportion of alcoholic relatives. In relation to other conditions these subjects presented intermediary values, suggesting that they may constitute an intermediate between the two other, polar types. It will be important to verify if these results are confirmed in populations with biological and cultural characteristics different from the Brazilian one.