Family history of alcohol dependence seems to have little or no influence on remission status in high-risk and population-based samples. Knop et al. (2007) examined associations of paternal alcoholism with alcohol dependence and remission in the all-male Danish Longitudinal Study on Alcoholism, in which members were assessed periodically from birth to age 40 years. Subjects whose fathers had documented histories of alcohol dependence were compared to socio-demographically matched subjects whose fathers had no such histories. Remission was defined as at least 6 months of abstinence from alcohol, or some use but no symptoms of alcohol dependence. Seventy percent of men with a history of alcohol abuse or dependence were in remission at the 40-year follow-up. Paternal alcohol dependence was associated with higher rates of lifetime alcohol dependence but not with remission, contrary to the authors' expectation that sons of alcoholic fathers would have lower rates of remission due to their higher familial risk. These authors suggest that different sets of genes may influence the development versus remission of alcohol dependence, or that genetics may have a larger influence on the
