The estimated variation in response to a standard modest dose of alcohol has also been captured in larger more epidemiologically based studies using an instrument called the Self-Rating of the Effects of Alcohol (SRE) measure. This instrument asks study participants to retrospectively estimate the number of standard drinks containing ethanol that were required for that person to experience four potential effects of the drug: (1) feeling any effects, (2) feeling dizzy/trouble talking, (3) trouble thinking/walking, and (4) falling asleep when you didn’t want to. The instrument also queries an individual to rate these reactions during different time points in a person’s life including the first five times or so that they ever drank, during the most recent 3 months and during the period of heaviest alcohol intake (see Schuckit et al., 1997a,b). This measure is particularly suited to large populations where direct tests of responses to alcohol drinking may not be feasible due to logistical factors, underage status, or ineligibility due to a diagnosis of alcohol use or other medical disorder. The relationship between the SRE and results from direct
