More than forty percent of probands and relatives were remitted in this high-risk sample, with abstinence the most common type of remission in probands and abstinent and non-abstinent remission equally common in relatives. An earlier study in the COGA sample found that more than 50% of all subjects with lifetime alcohol dependence (probands, relatives, and controls) reported periods of abstinence lasting 3 months or more, with 16.1% reporting abstinence of 5 or more years (37). Similar to the relatives in the current study, abstainers were older than individuals who never abstained, had a greater number of lifetime symptoms, and were more likely to have sought formal treatment and to have attended self-help groups. Other sampling frames, as well, show similarities to the current data. Abstinent individuals with lifetime AUD from population-based data had more AUD symptoms than remitted-non-abstinent individuals (27). In a national sample of individuals self-identified as “in recovery,” abstainers compared to non-abstainers were older, more likely to have received professional treatment and to have attended self-help meetings, and had significantly more lifetime alcohol dependence symptoms (38). These similarities
