For 23 years, this long-term U-M/MSU study has yielded valuable information
about the causes of substance abuse, by following a large group of individuals and their
families from early childhood through adolescence and adulthood. It has looked at the
impacts that alcoholism and other drug use, poverty and educational disadvantage have on
individuals and families, and the capacity of some children to be resilient in the face of
these issues.
The MLS is the world's longest-running study on the development
of substance abuse, and involves more than 2,200 individuals in over 460 families. Recently, the
study yielded the first-ever evidence that specific indicators in early childhood can predict an
adult's likelihood of being diagnosed with alcoholism -- a finding that is only possible because
the study has tracked the life course of a generation of children, including children of
alcoholics, and a comparison group from families without a history of alcoholism. A third
generation is now being studied: the children of the people who were small children when the
study began.
The study is led by Robert Zucker, Ph.D., director of the U-M
Addiction Research Center, and the MSU participation is led by Profs. Joel Nigg and Hiram
Fitzgerald. It has been funded continuously by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and
Alcoholism, part of the National Institutes of Health. With an annual budget of $2.5 million,
it involves more than a dozen scientists, a dozen graduate students and postdoctoral fellows,
and around 50 staff members. The U-M portion of the team includes members of the U-M Department
of Psychiatry and its Addiction Research Center, the U-M Molecular & Behavioral Neuroscience
Institute, and the U-M departments of Statistics and of Human Genetics. The MSU portion of the
team includes members of the Department of Psychology, and the Assistant Provost for University
Outreach.
The MLS is assessing the many factors that contribute to the
origin of alcohol abuse and dependence, of mental health issues and other substance-abuse
issues in people with alcohol problems, and of behavior issues within children of alcoholics.
It uses genetic, brain-imaging, behavioral, social, demographic and economic assessments, and
has led to many important research articles. Its findings have helped shape the growing realization
that alcoholism is a developmental disorder that has its roots in early childhood, and that
efforts to combat alcoholism and other substance abuse in the community should focus on prevention
among at-risk youth before problems emerge.
