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The study examined whether eight characteristics attributed to adult children of alcoholics (ACOAs) by Woititz (1983) were supported by personality measures. The Children of Alcoholics Screening Test (CAST) and nine scales from the California Personality Inventory and the 16‐PF were administered to 166 undergraduates. Forty‐nine (29%) of these subjects were identified as ACOAs. ACOAS' scores on the personality measures were compared to an age‐ and gender‐matched control group. No differences were identified between ACOA men and control men. ACOA women were found to be more flexible, impulsive, and pessimistic, with a sense of less wellbeing than control women. A significant discriminant function correctly classified 77.6% of the women subjects. This function indicated that easygoingness, independence, self‐assurance, and self‐directedness are associated with status as an ACOA for women.

This study enumerated lymphocyte subclasses in the peripheral circulation of 15 patients with current diagnoses of major depressive disorder using monoclonal antibodies and flow cytometry. Depressed patients were found to have smaller numbers of helper (T4+), suppressor (T8+), and total T cells (T 11 +) relative to individually matched, normal controls, but no diiferences occurred between groups in the ratio of helper to suppressor cells. Furthermore, the helper, suppressor, and total T cell counts were found to be inversely related to patients' self-reported depression scores. The peripheral circulation of patients with major depression seems to be characterized by proportionately equal reductions in the numbers of helper and suppressor T cells, with the magnitude of these reductions being related to the severity of clinical depression among such patients.

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