outset. In part, this is because alcoholism is a developmental, chronically relapsing disorder, and it is both difficult and expensive to model in the laboratory across the life span, even in rodents that typically live only 2–3 years. Also, we believe that this is due to a disconnection between the phenotypic targets chosen for genetic studies by clinical and preclinical researchers. The former tend to concentrate on diagnostic categories, while the latter can provide believable models for only selected features of clinically-relevant symptom clusters. Some of the crucial features of alcohol use disorders (e.g., the tendency for preoccupation with the drug to interfere with work or peer relationships) are unlikely to be modeled realistically in laboratory rodents.
