Several investigators recently made an effort to review the state of the art in human and animal research across many domains important for alcohol use disorder epidemiology, pathophysiology and treatment (Crabbe 2010). One domain considered was the assessment of ethanol consumption (Leeman et al. 2010). The work group concluded that three categories could encompass most of the relevant phenotypes: abstinence (or the decision to drink or not to drink); the amount consumed; and heavy drinking. Laboratory studies of the decision making process are sparse in both humans and laboratory animals. Human studies were encouraged that consider excessive drinking according to standard guidelines (reaching > 80 mg% within 2 h), and the DID model is a promising start in rodents. More attention was encouraged in all species to studies of the patterning of drinking both within a drinking session, with respect to circadian time, and across drinking sessions. Finally, the need for measuring BECs in all studies was emphasized (Leeman et al. 2010). Although alcohol consumption is only one area of importance for understanding and treating alcohol use disorders, it is
