Individuals with AUD can exhibit a number of negative behavioral and physiological alcohol-related phenotypes that include alcohol abuse and alcohol dependence (NIAAA, dynamic). A diagnosis of AUD is warranted when an individual meets any 2 of 11 alcohol use-related criteria in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders-5 (DSM-5) within a single 12-month period (American Psychiatric Association, 2013). Nearly 11% of all individuals in the United States will meet the criteria for AUD within the previous year (Edenberg and Foroud, 2013) and the lifetime risk for developing AUD approaches 25% (Haeny et al., 2014; Nery et al., 2014), although the lifetime risk of alcohol consumption leading to obvious harmful dysfunction might be much lower (Wakefield and Schmitz, 2014). Regardless of the analysis method, however, it is clear that AUD has an enormous, negative impact on human health across the globe.
