Most research on the P3b reduction in AUDs has focused on clinical populations of treated individuals with alcohol dependence. Our group and others have shown repeatedly that treated or treatment-seeking individuals with alcohol dependence, who constitute at most 25% of individuals with an AUD, come from a different population than treatment-naïve alcohol-dependent individuals. The former have more severe alcoholism, a higher family history density of alcohol problems, more psychiatric and polysubstance comorbidity, and more cognitive and structural impairment than the latter (Di Sclafani et al., 2008; Fein et al., 2002; Fein and Landman, 2005; Gazdzinski et al., 2008; Smith and Fein, 2010).
