A potential limitation of the alcohol response studies in FHP women conducted thus far is that the role of the menstrual cycle has been ignored. However, the study by Evans and Levin (2003) observed that FHP women reported more dysphoric mood than FHN women in the absence of drug administration, a finding that has been reported by other studies in FHP individuals (Ciraulo et al., 1996; Evans et al., 2000; Moss et al., 1989; de Wit and McCracken, 1990). At least among the studies involving FHP women (Ciraulo et al., 1996; Evans et al., 2000; Evans and Levin, 2003), these baseline differences in dysphoric mood might be related to dysphoric mood changes that occur in some women during different phases of the menstrual cycle, particularly the late luteal phase and the early follicular phase. To our knowledge, no studies have directly addressed whether the response to alcohol varies in FHP women across the menstrual cycle and studies that did investigate the effects of alcohol across the menstrual cycle either did not measure or did not report whether participants had family
