Lifetime AUD severity and rates of treatment were greatest among abstinent individuals and lowest among remitted low-risk drinkers, consistent with evidence that abstinence is a more common form of remission among individuals with severe AUD, and that moderate drinking is the most common form of remission among untreated individuals (Dawson et al., 2005; Sobell et al., 1996). Remission rates in this high-risk sample were higher than those found among alcohol dependent individuals from a population-based sample who were re-interviewed 3 years after meeting criteria for current alcohol dependence (AD; Dawson et al., 2012). In that study, only 11% of the sample was remitted at follow-up. The higher rate of remission in this study may be due to the fact that remission was based on DSM-5 AUD, which has a lower severity threshold than DSM-IV AD, and therefore a lower threshold for remission (i.e., remission of 2, rather than 3, symptoms). Also, related to the sample’s high-risk status, each individual in the current study had at least one family member with lifetime AD who had accessed professional treatment, which may have
