Table 1.

Alcohol consumption phenotypes of importance in human and animal research

Variable(s)/ topic	Human clinical and epidemiologic research	Human laboratory models	Animal models
Abstinence/ decision to drink or abstain	Very common and based on self-report Use of biomarkers (e.g., %CDT, Blood or breath alcohol concentration [BAC]) for this purpose is limited	Participants given choice whether or not to drink Percent who decide to drink reported in some studies Relevant timing-related phenotype: latency to first sip	Not well-modeled overall, but some animal paradigms are relevant (e.g., reinstatement) Focused instead on setting up contingencies in which animals will drink Relevant timing-related phenotype: latency to first lick
Amount of alcohol consumed	Standard drink units typically Measures more precise than drink units (e.g., g ethanol) reported rarely Estimated BAC’s in college literature	Standard drink units common More precise measures (e.g., oz of alcohol) reported sometimes BAC’s commonly reported	Precise measures reported exclusively, often g/kg of ethanol consumed. BAC’s sometimes reported
Heavy drinking	Heavy drinking days (5/4 definition) reported often Binge drinking: definition of 5/4 drinks within two hours or less recently endorsed by NIAAA Maximum consumption in a day (lifetime or within a time frame)	Drinking typically monitored for a period lasting up to several hours Whether a pre-determined consumption limit is reached sometimes reported Heavy/binge drinking rates could be derived Patterns of drinking (e.g., length of intervals between sips) commonly reported High BAC’s indicative of “too much” consumption, “too fast” Heavy drinking over multiple days rarely modeled	Drinking within 24 hour periods often not reported Amount of ethanol consumed by rats (and recently mice) bred or trained for excessive as opposed to light/moderate drinking Licking patterns reported in some studies (e.g., rate of licking, such as licks per minute) High BAC’s indicative of “too much too fast” Drinking over multiple days frequently modeled
too much too fast
too much too often	NIAAA weekly guidelines > 14/7 drinks/week occasionally reported

Consumption phenotypes in bold