PROJECT SUMMARY
Alcohol use disorders (AUDs) are common, enduring, frequently recurring, and often involve
comorbid substance use disorders (SUDs) or other psychiatric disorders. Despite the importance of
AUDs as a public health concern, important gaps in knowledge remain concerning events or processes
that culminate in the comorbidity of AUD with SUDs and other psychiatric conditions, and the
impacts that such forms of comorbidity have on the course and outcomes of AUD. To address these
gaps, the proposed secondary analysis research will utilize an existing prospective and
multigenerational data set from the Oregon Adolescent Depression Project (OADP), a community-
based study with a regionally representative cohort sample followed throughout the high-risk periods
of adolescence, emerging adulthood, and young adulthood. In this proposal we describe a plan for
investigating (1) the diversity of risk-related developmental pathways that predict AUD alone versus
comorbid AUD with a non-alcohol SUD; and, (2) whether AUD remission or recovery is associated
with a heighted risk for the emergence of a different SUD as suggested by the drug substitution
hypothesis. In conjunction with our investigation of these topics, we will also conduct exploratory
analyses that evaluate sex differences, sex moderation, and sex invariance. Findings from these
projects are expected to make significant and important contributions to current understandings of
factors related to the course of AUDs and, consequently, future refinements in etiologic theories of
alcoholism and the design of tailored prevention and treatment interventions.