Despite at least two decades of research on telescoping, there is a paucity of data on race/ethnicity differences in the progression from drinking onset to development of alcohol dependence. One study of participants recruited from substance abuse treatment programs included in the National Drug and Alcoholism Treatment Unit Survey (NDATUS) database found that while Blacks were older than Whites and Hispanics at onset of first regular alcohol use, both Blacks and Hispanics progressed from first regular use to intoxication faster than Whites (Johnson et al., 2005). However, this study did not examine time to development of alcohol dependence. Less is known about whether differences in progression vary when examining race/ethnicity subgroups by sex.
