The present study was aimed to confirm that a family history of alcoholism and early alcohol initiation are the factors associated with the development of alcohol dependence.

The study was based on authors' anonymous questionnaire. In the index group there were 125 people, aged 22–68, members of AA groups. In the control group there were 231 people, aged 17–65, with no history of alcoholism. The results were considered as significant with a p value < 0.05. Statistical analysis was performed with Statistica 6.0 software.

Alcohol initiation before the age of 15 and before the age of 12 were more common in the index group (49% vs. 42% and 13% vs. 8%; p <0,05, respectively). Impact of social environment was greater for the index group – 11% (3% of the control group;p <0.05) drank alcohol for the first time at school while in the control group, alcohol was more often introduced at home (24% vs 22%). Respondents of the index group were less often raised by both parents (78 % vs 87 %; p<0,05) and more often one or both parents abused alcohol (43 % vs 19 % and 15 % vs 1 % respectively; p<0,05). Alcohol dependent respondents were more frequently punished for their failures, abused physically/verbally and could not depend on their parents.

Based on the results of present study, we confirmed that the factors that have an impact on development of alcohol dependence are early drinking onset and family structure.