The recruitment and assessment of study participants occurred in two stages. In stage I, the researchers recruited pro-bands and family members as previously described and interviewed all participants to determine the presence of alcohol-use disorders, smoking, other drug dependence, and psychiatric disorders. The investigators used a diagnostic interview tool called the Semi-Structured Assessment for the Genetics of Alcoholism (SSAGA), which had been developed specifically for this study (Bucholz et al. 1994; Hesselbrock 1999). Based on the interview, alcohol dependence was defined as meeting lifetime criteria for alcohol dependence as specified in the APA’s (1987) DSM–III–R and the Feighner criteria for definite alcoholism (Feighner et al. 1972). (For a listing of the APA and Feighner criteria, see the textboxes below and on p. 236, respectively.)
