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The thesis seeks to steal only with a limited aspect of Engels' thesis on the relationship between drunkenness and industrialisation during the early 19th century - with the organisation, sources of support and leadership of the three liquor restrictionist campaigns before 1869 - the anti-spirits, teetotal, and prohibitionist movements. The attempt to solve the drink problem through the association of abstainers did not begun until the appearance of the anti-spirits movement in Britain in 1828-9. Although for centuries there had been individual abstainers, and even public campaigns against drunkenness, nobody had thought of founding a temperance society . Three recent social changes prepared the way for the early anti-spirits movement. Firstly, the gradual abandonment of drunkenness by fashionable society at least by the end of the 18th century, and the appearance of a sober labour aristocracy by the 1820s. Secondly,the sophistication after the late 18th century of techniques of public agitation; and thirdly the desire evinced by certain sections of society , partially pcvincial manufacturers and nonconformists, allied with labour aristocrats, for certain radical changes in the political and social system. The idea of anti-spirits association originated in America in the 1820s and soon reached Britain via the Anglo- American philanthropic network. Originating simultaneously in Glasgow with John Dunlop and in Belfast with Dr. John Edgar, the new movement soon spread to the North of England. By 1831 the British and Foreign Temperance Society had been established at Exeter Hall. In individual instances, religious zeal was the motivating force, but other factors seem to have made British society in the late 1820s receptive to temperance agitation. The suspicion that religious factors are not the only influences at work is suggested by two considerations: temperance was ardently recommended both by religious and irreligious opinion-formers, and the temperance movement appeared at the same time as many other pressures on working people to conserve their resources. Relevant factors seem to be the following. Taxation changes in the 1820s had prompted fears that a second "gin age" might be imminent; difficulties with the textile industries in the North seem to have increased the attractiveness of a movement which promised to extend the home market and discipline the work force. Manufacturers in the Northern cities showed some enthusiasm for the early anti-spirits movemaot. Thirdly, the cheapening and improved accessibility of non-intoxicating drinks made organised abstinence from intoxicants more feasible than at any earlier date. The first parliamentary inquiry into drunkenness was held in 1854, and although its recommendations were in many ways far-sighted, it was ridiculed by parliament and the press largely for two reasons: because of the unpopularity of its chairman, the radical J.S.Buckingham and of his associates on the committee - the Evangelicals. And secondly because the committee's long-term suggestions - notably prohibition - were mistaken for immediate recommendations, provincial society in the Northern industrial towns was more favourable than London opinion towards the committee and to its report.

published_or_final_version / abstract / toc / Clinical Psychology / Master / Master of Social Sciences

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A wealth of data supports the hypothesis that the neurotransmitter serotonin regulates the intake of ethanol, and is involved in the development of alcoholism in humans. Reduced functioning of the serotonergic system hypothetically increases alcohol intake in both animals and humans. In this thesis, it was proposed that the effect of lowered serotonergic function on alcohol intake is mediated by an increase in disinhibition. The hypothesis that lowered serotonin increases disinhibition was tested in separate groups of individuals at high risk for the development of psychopathology: nonalcoholic young men with a strong family history of paternal alcoholism, and adolescent men with previous histories of physically aggressive behavior. Lowered serotonergic synthesis (and thus presumably function) was experimentally induced through a transient dietary reduction in the availability of the amino add precursor of serotonin, tryptophan. Disinhibition was quantified using a go/no-go task previously shown to characterize psychopaths and children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder as disinhibited. In the first study, acute tryptophan depletion had no effect on aggressive responding on a modified competitive reaction time aggression task, but increased disinhibition in young men at risk for alcoholism. This effect was independent of the tryptophan depletion-induced mood alterations. The effect tryptophan depletion on disinhibition was not replicated in the second study with previously aggressive adolescent men. A number of explanations for this were posited, including the presence of a ceiling effect. An association between disinhibition and executive functioning (cognitive abilities associated with proper functioning of the prefrontal cortex, such as working memory, planning abilities) was demonstrated in the second study. In a third preliminary study, no association between disinhibition on the go/no-go task and allelic polymorphisms of the dopamine D4 receptor

Alcohol abuse is the second most prevalent lifetime psychiatric disorder. However, individuals do not face an equal risk of developing problematic alcoholrelated behaviors. Alcohol use disorders are heterogeneous conditions whose development may be caused by a variety of factors and vulnerabilities. The identification of markers of risk is necessary in order to identify individuals at higher risk for addiction early on as well as to help develop treatment interventions which target an individual's specific risk factors. The goal of the present dissertation is to increase our understanding of the role that one putative risk factor, an exaggerated cardiac response to alcohol, may play in the development of addictive behaviors. Five studies are reported. / The first study revealed that an exaggerated heart rate response to alcohol is associated with subjective reports of increased alcohol-induced stimulation. In a second study, the relationship between the cardiac response to alcohol and personality characteristics was examined. Individuals who demonstrated the elevated cardiac response to alcohol displayed a distinct personality profile characterized by high sensation-seeking and sensitivity to reward. Two separate studies followed investigating the relationship between this physiological response to alcohol and other addictive behaviours. One study found that individuals with an exaggerated cardiac response to alcohol were more likely to obtain superior scores on a measure of pathological gambling, while the next study found that users of psychostimulants (e.g., cocaine) also displayed heightened alcohol-induced cardiac responses. A final study examined the impact of conditioned cues of reward and non-reward on alcohol-induced cardiac responses. Individuals who had previously displayed elevated cardiac responses to ethanol showed reduced cardiac reactivity when alcohol ingestion occurred in a non-rewarding environment. Overall, these findings suggest that the cardiac response to alcohol is a marker of a pathway that may lead to addictive behaviors through increased sensitivity to incentive reward.

In this study, an attempt was made to determine if alcoholism counsellors tend to view their clients' wives negatively. For this purpose, a self-administered questionnaire was designed. Of the 284 questionnaires mailed to counsellors in Quebec, Ontario and New York State, 176 were returned. Several statistical tests were used to determine which factor(s) affected their opinion. It was found that American counsellors and counsellors who are recovering alcoholics tend to agree with the disturbed personality theory, adopt the codependence concept more readily, and view wives of alcoholics as more pathological than do the Canadian counsellors and the counsellors of a professional background. Further research is suggested to explore the possible cultural differences in the two countries as well as the apparent benefit of having counsellors of a professional background in treatment centers.

This thesis involves a comprehensive review of the personality, psychiatric, and genetic risk factors for alcoholism and drug abuse. Based on this review, it is hypothesised that specific risk factors cluster together to represent separate vulnerability pathways to substance abuse and that differential susceptibility to the pharmacological effects of drugs of abuse (reinforcement and intoxication) mediates the relationship between such risk characteristics and drug-taking behaviour. A series of four studies are presented indicating that groups of individuals characterized by different risk factors for alcoholism are differentially sensitive to the reinforcing properties of alcohol. Non-alcoholic young adult men presumed to be at genetic risk for alcoholism (due to high genetic loading for alcoholism) were shown to be sensitive to the effects of alcohol on resting and stress-induced physiological states hypothesized to reflect activity within a brain reward system involved in the activation of approach and avoidance behaviour. Non-alcoholic young adult males self-reporting a personality profile that has been associated with increased risk for the development of panic disorder also demonstrated idiosyncratic responses to alcohol intoxication in that they appeared particularly sensitive to the. fear-dampening effects of alcohol. Finally, a group of non-alcoholic males were identified as being particularly susceptible to elevated and problematic alcohol and drug use in early adulthood due to a disinhibited/antisocial personality profile. These findings were interpreted as reflecting separate vulnerability pathways to substance use/abuse in which differential sensitivity to drug reinforcement and disinhibited personality are thought to play an important role in determining liability to seek out behavioural reinforcement from drugs of abuse. A second set of studies tested whether these factors are implicated in the maintenance of problematic alcohol and drug consumptio