The study of subjective alcohol response as an intermediate phenotype is entering its fourth decade, yet consensus regarding how best to understand this potentially important risk factor is still lacking. As a recent narrative summary of the area concluded, “although additional research may ultimately find that one of the two leading theoretical models is more accurate, the reviewed literature does not yet provide a definitive answer” (Morean and Corbin, 2010, p. 391). Indeed, despite presenting theories with contradictory predictions, prior reviews summarizing both the LLRM and the DM continue to be influential. According to the PsycInfo database, Pollock’s (1992) meta-analysis of evidence for the LLRM has been cited 77 times, including 6 citations in 2010 alone, and Newlin and Thomson’s (1990) presentation of the DM has been cited 147 times, including 14 citations in 2010.
