The finding that alcohol-dependence symptoms predicted heavy drinking and transitions to heavy drinking from either moderate or nondrinking lends support for the conceptualization of alcohol dependence as a chronic relapsing condition (McLellan, 2002). Clinically, these data suggest that individuals who are severely alcohol dependent (more than six symptoms for outpatients and seven symptoms for inpatients) are likely to have a lower probability of maintaining moderate drinking. Similarly, genetics research using the Project MATCH sample found that individuals who had a higher genetic risk for alcohol dependence reported significantly heavier drinking following treatment (Bauer et al., 2007).
