Our lack of a telescoping effect for women is in contrast to the many earlier studies (Hernandez-Avila et al., 2004; Johnson et al., 2005; Piazza et al., 1989; Randall et al., 1999), which were conducted in treatment samples and thus less able to generalize to the general population. By analyzing data from a population-based sample, consisting of individuals with and without alcohol dependence, and by removing the potential selection biases of treatment populations, our findings are expected to represent the course from first alcohol use to dependence in the general population of the United States.
