A large body of research has established that alcoholics consistently manifest significantly lower P3 amplitudes under a variety of task conditions and in both genders (for reviews, see Begleiter and Porjesz 1990b; Campanella et al. 2009; Porjesz and Begleiter 1993, 2003; Porjesz et al. 2005). The reduced P3 amplitude in alcoholics does not recover with prolonged abstinence (Porjesz and Begleiter 1985) and has been found to be related to the number of first-degree alcoholic relatives more than the drinking history of an alcoholic (Cohen et al. 1995; Pfefferbaum et al. 1991) or of an HR individual (Benegal et al. 1995). Furthermore, low P3 amplitude in prepubescence has been shown to predict later substance abuse, including alcohol abuse in adolescence (Berman et al. 1993; Hill et al. 1995; Iacono et al. 2002, 2003).
