Shaveta Bansal - All Headline News Contributor

Dr. Holger J. Sorenson and colleagues at Copenhagen University and the U.S. studied the relationship between short duration of breast-feeding and alcoholism, taking into account the environmental and familial factors.

Their research included 3245 men and 3317 women born between 1959 and 1961. Thirty-four percent of these participants had been breast-fed for no more than a month, according to the team's report in the American Journal of Psychiatry.

After follow-up through 1999, the researchers found that 98 men and 40 women were hospitalized with an alcohol-related diagnosis. Of the 138 cases, 63 were weaned by 1 month and 75 were breast-fed for longer periods. The researchers calculated that early weaning increased the likelihood of alcoholism by 65 percent.

According to Sorenson's group decreased physical and psychological contact between the mother and the infant may increase the risk of alcoholism.

Other possibility ruled out was a decreased intake of long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acids contained in breast milk could affect brain development.