rates of alcohol use and dependence. Additional alcohol-related phenotypes (e.g. age at first use; patterns of alcohol drinking, including binge drinking) could be used in subsequent genetic studies to identify additional sources of genetic vulnerability for AUD. Lastly, we offered guidelines to identify cases to use in genetic studies of AUD (i.e. AUDIT score ≥12) based on genetic correlations; however, these recommendations are not intended to determine thresholds for diagnosing dependence in a clinical setting. Future studies will be able to test whether using AUDIT as a surrogate for AUD will be beneficial for gene discovery. In addition, several studies have argued that lower thresholds should be used for females, which has not been addressed in the present study.
