This is the first book in a planned series of books to provide an overview of recent research developments in the field of alcoholism. The purpose of this text is to allow interested professionals and researchers to keep abreast of the multidisciplinary work in the field. Annual volumes are planned to "present a scholarly review and analysis of selected research topics prepared by leading figures in the field."
The work is the collaborative venture of the American Medical Society on Alcoholism and the Research Society on Alcoholism. This first volume is divided into four sections each with a different section editor. Each section contains several chapters written by different authorities in the field being discussed.
Section 1, edited by Henri Begleiter, deals with the role of genetics in the expression of alcoholism. The central theme of this section is that there is a definite, though not overwhelming, degree of genetic