In contrast, some of the most consistent correlates of both abstinent and non-abstinent remission are social connections such as marriage, friendship, and religious or self-help group attendance (27–30). Traits that might enhance these connections, like social cognition (31–33), might also be associated with the ability to remit. Heritable characteristics that are related to social cognition, such as prosocial behavior and social responsiveness (34, 35), may represent a dimension that underlies remission in the same way that an externalizing dimension underlies AUDs, but that diverges from the externalizing domain. However, before heritable characteristics that might be associated with remission can be identified, a remission phenotype that displays a familial association, and therefore suggests some underlying genetic or familial environmental mechanisms, is needed.
