Parental history for alcoholism and binge drinking (≥5 drinks per occasion) in a sample of alcohol dependent individuals both have been found to influence short-term outcome of alcohol dependence (Hasin, Paykin, & Endicott, 2001). An additional factor is gender, because as many as 81% of all binge-drinking episodes are attributed to men (Naimi et al., 2003), but men also demonstrate increased frequency of alcohol dependence (Robin, Long, Rasmussen, Albaugh, & Goldman, 1998). These data suggest that the relationships among binge-drinking definitions, epidemiological findings, and alcohol-related diagnostic categories need additional refinement.
