In the sex-, age- and race-stratified analyses, little evidence for differences among the subgroups was found as there was significant overlap in confidence intervals. Because self-medication may be less likely to occur with fewer or less severe mood symptoms, we examined the associations by whether individuals met full diagnostic criteria for mood disorders or had sub-threshold symptoms. Although odds ratios in both subgroups were elevated, self-medication drinking tended to have a stronger and statistically significant association with incident dependence among those with sub-threshold symptoms (AOR=3.88, CI=1.63-9.26, p=0.003). On the other hand, self-medication drinking was associated with persistent alcohol dependence for those with sub-threshold symptoms, as well as those individuals who met full criteria for a mood disorder. Self-medication drinking among individuals who reported having received treatment for mood symptoms was associated with a four-fold increased odds of incident alcohol dependence in follow-up (AOR=3.94, CI=1.82-8.52, p=0.001), whereas a weaker association of self-medication with dependence was found among those without a treatment history (AOR=1.97, CI=0.50-7.76, p=0.326). Drinking to self-medicate mood symptoms was strongly associated with persistence of alcohol dependence among those with
