The P3 amplitude in alcoholics did not completely recover with prolonged abstinence (Porjesz and Begleiter, 1985; Glenn et al., 1994) and remained lower when compared to controls. Also, relapse was associated with longer N2 latency and this was not modulated by family history (Glenn et al., 1993). Studies evaluating long-term abstinent alcoholics found that P3b amplitude was reduced even after 3–10 years of abstinence (Porjesz and Begleiter, 1985) and along with increased P3a and P3b latencies after an average abstinence of 6 years (Fein and Chang, 2006).
