Extending these results to the clinical range of problem drinking, we found that the same three-way interaction between LESS, amygdala reactivity, and VS activity predicted the likelihood of being diagnosed with an AUD, regardless of comorbidity (without covariates: b=−0.370, p=0.016; with covariates: b=−0.391, p=0.014; Figure 2c–d). Notably, stress was a more accurate predictor of the presence of a diagnosis for those with a combination of relatively low VS activity (<-1 SD) and high (>1 SD) amygdala reactivity, than for those with low amygdala reactivity and high VS activity, as in the latter group significant LESS-AUDIT correlations were only observed at larger levels of imbalance between VS activity and amygdala reactivity (e.g., ≥2.5 SD away from the mean; data not visualized). This same three-way interaction did not predict the probability of being diagnosed with a non-alcohol-related disorder (p values>0.60).
