The most frequent measure of baseline alcohol consumption was the number of drinks consumed per drinking day. In the studies using this criterion, the range was 5–19 drinks with most studies reporting 8–13 drinks per day. The baseline alcohol consumption was not available in four studies [22], [34], [39], [42]. We were unable to obtain the baseline alcohol consumption for the sub sample of codependent patients in the Carroll et al study (2004) [43]. In three of the studies, other consumption measures were provided when the number of drinks per day was not stated: Fuller et al (1986) reported days drank in the prior month (20–21), Gerrein et al (1973) reported the number of years of loss of control drinking (12.83), and Ling et al (1982) reported that 80% of their sample drank daily.
