Relapsing alcoholics have been reported to have more desynchronized, or randomly firing, beta activity over frontal areas than nonrelapsers, which suggests a functional disturbance in the prefrontal cortex (the area of the brain just behind the forehead) (Winterer et al. 1998). Bauer (2001) reported that fast beta power was superior to severity of illness, depression level, and childhood conduct problems in predicting relapse in abstinent alcoholics. Researchers have identified anterior frontal brain regions (e.g., the prefrontal cortex) as the most likely source of this fast beta activity. Because the increase in beta power in abstinent alcoholics was not related to length of abstinence (Rangaswamy et al. 2002) and also is present in offspring of alcoholics at risk for alcohol dependence (Rangaswamy et al. 2004), these findings suggest that excess beta power is a “trait” rather than a “state” variable (i.e., related to underlying genetic predisposition and not to alcohol use or other factors). This is consistent with the hypothesis that an imbalance between excitatory and inhibitory neurons is involved in a predisposition to develop alcohol dependence (Begleiter and Porjesz 1999) as well as a proneness to relapse (Bauer 2001).
