This study explicitly modeled abstinent and non-abstinent remission in probands who were recruited from AUD treatment programs and in their first-degree family members with lifetime AUDs to test for familial associations of remission in high risk families and to define a phenotype which can be used to explore associations of remission with potentially heritable characteristics. Results showed that individuals who were related to an abstinent proband were more than 3 times as likely to be abstinent themselves, compared to individuals related to a proband with persistent AUD; this association was not significant in unrelated pairs. The significant association of probands’ with relatives’ abstinent remission in related but not in unrelated proband-relative pairs suggests there are familial influences on abstinent remission which may be due to genetic or familial environmental factors. The familial association of abstinent remission in this sample selected for high risk for AUDs has not heretofore been observed.
