Alcohol use was assessed using the 30-day timeline follow-back (TLFB) interview (Sobell and Sobell, 1980). Alcohol dependence and the exclusionary psychiatric diagnoses were assessed using the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV (SCID; First et al., 1995); The Clinical Institute Withdrawal Assessment for Alcohol (CIWA-Ar) assessed the presence and severity of withdrawal symptoms (Sullivan et al., 1989). Participants completed the Alcohol Dependence Scale (ADS)(Skinner and Allen, 1982), the Drinkers Inventory of Consequences (DrInC-2R) questionnaire(Miller et al., 1995) and the Penn Alcohol Craving Scale (PACS) (Flannery et al., 1999).
