We examined remission, measures of social context and treatment five years after a current AUD diagnosis in a sample of men and women from families with histories of alcohol dependence. Thirty-one percent of the sample was remitted at follow-up and 6.4% of the sample had no AUD symptoms but was drinking at high-risk levels. The most common form of remission was low-risk drinking, but among individuals with greatest AUD severity, abstinence was more common. The social contexts accompanying high-risk drinking and remitted low-risk drinking differed from the context of persistent AUD, with high-risk drinkers more likely to have a stable number of children and to have become unemployed during the follow-up interval, and female remitted low-risk drinkers more likely to have had a first child during the interval. The context of abstinent remission showed the greatest differentiation from persistent AUD, with differences in marital status, children, family and friend support, and treatment.
