Despite recent progress, continued progress will require targeted and systematic replication of these reported associations, which may be especially difficult in the genetic and neurobehavioral domains where sufficiently powered studies are difficult to conduct. Additionally, since most studies have relied on cross-sectional designs, future longitudinal studies are crucial to clearly differentiate the impulsivity-related factors that underlie AUDs versus those factors that are related but not causal, including factors that are the result of AUDs. In this way, there is great potential for advances in this area through the continuing assessment of large cohorts of “at-risk” samples, such as collected in the Collaborative Studies on Genetics of Alcoholism (COGA) and similar longitudinal studies in the United States, Europe and New Zealand that have assessed alcohol use patterns throughout child to early adult development. These platforms provide a powerful basis upon which to graft targeted neurobiological assessment (especially genome-wide association studies) onto rigorously-characterized samples whose alcohol use and disorder status has been carefully tracked over time.
