The symposium examined how the hormones involved in the stress response and in gender differences influence both alcohol consumption and the vulnerability to develop alcoholism. Individual papers discussed the role of stress and pituitary, adrenal, and gonadal hormones on alcohol- seeking behavior. Topics included the normal responses of the body to stressful stimuli, gender differences in these responses, modulating factors on the hypothalamic-pituitary- adrenal axis, and gender differences in the consumption of alcohol. Other topics included differences in alcohol- seeking behavior, possibly based on differences in the responses to stress, as well as genetic, electrophysiological, neurochemical, and endocrine differences, including neurosteroids, that might contribute to alcohol-seeking behavior. The papers included epidemiological, genetic, and experimental studies and analyses of both human and animal models. Tables, figures, chapter reference lists, and list of abbreviations and acronyms