The co-occurrence of alcohol use disorder (AUD) and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) has been extensively documented (Blanco et al., 2013; Goldstein et al., 2016; Kessler et al., 2005). Parent AUD may explain a great deal of the shared etiology between AUD and PTSD through inherited factors (Bowers and Yehuda, 2016; Buss et al., 2017; Heath et al., 1997; Merikangas et al., 1998; Nelson et al., 2004) as well as environmental influences (Bucholz et al., 2017; Yoon et al., 2013). Studies have shown that, in addition to elevating offspring risk for problematic drinking and/or developing AUD, having one or more parents with AUD is associated with higher odds of experiencing childhood physical and sexual violence (Anda et al., 2006; Bender et al., 2020). The offspring of individuals diagnosed with AUD thus represent a subpopulation at increased risk for not only trauma exposure but also the development of both AUD and PTSD.
