The proportion of individuals with recent Abstinence in the current study (42%) was higher than the 10% with Abstinence in our follow ups of COGA relatives and in the 25-year follow up of men from the San Diego Prospective Study (Gonçalves et al., 2017; McCutcheon et al., 2017). Those disparate proportions might reflect the older age of the current subjects, where Abstinence at an average of 60 requires survival to that age, and 24% of subjects selected for follow-up were deceased and are the focus of another paper. Perhaps individuals with AUDs who are followed into their 60s might have demonstrated continued alcohol problems in their 40s and 50s but be most likely to survive into their 60s if they achieved Abstinence. The different rates of Abstinence might also relate to the current long follow-up period that gives additional opportunity for spontaneous remission that has been reported to occur in more than 20% of individuals with AUDs (Schutte et al., 2006; Upah et al., 2015).
