In summary, our findings demonstrate an absence of P300 reduction in treatment-naïve adolescents with alcohol-use disorders. We attribute this finding to the fact that treatment-naïve adolescents have comparatively lower alcohol exposure, less genetic vulnerability to alcoholism, and less psychiatric comorbidity than more frequently studied adult treated samples. This rationale is supported by an overall lack of association between ERP and alcohol-use (individual and family) variables, and between ERP and psychiatric symptom counts, within TNAD. These observations contribute to accumulating literature describing numerous and clinically significant differences between treatment-seeking and treatment-naïve samples. Future studies should seek to create models specifying directions of association, and the weight of paths, between psychiatric comorbidity, P300 reductions, and chronic alcohol use.
