Following approval of institutional review boards at all participating institutions, AD probands were recruited through alcohol treatment programs and administered a validated poly-diagnostic instrument, the Semi-Structured Assessment for the Genetics of Alcoholism (SSAGA), to assess AD14,16,18,19,24. Individuals below the age of 18 were administered an adolescent version of the SSAGA. The same assessment approach, used for all probands and their relatives, was repeated at several-year intervals for a large number of individuals.
