The increased odds of alcohol abuse found in women compared to men with either a paternal or maternal history of alcoholism is supported by previously published work. Crum and Harris (1996) (Crum and Harris, 1996) studied a subset of the National Institute of Mental Health Epidemiologic Catchment Area Program data and found that the association between parental alcoholism and alcohol use disorders (abuse or dependence) was stronger in female offspring than in male offspring. In a large study of college freshmen, Sher et al. (1991) (Sher et al., 1991) examined gender by family history of alcoholism interactions and found a statistically greater effect of family history of alcoholism on offspring alcohol use disorders in women than in men. In a case-control study, Curran et al. (1999) (Curran et al., 1999) found that family history of alcoholism was a stronger predictor of symptoms of alcohol dependence in women.
