Contributions of behavioral science to alcohol research: understanding who is at risk and why.

: Behavioral science has been an active participant in alcohol research progress over the past 30 years, particularly in the areas of prevention and treatment methodology. However, alcoholism results from the interaction between complex biological and behavioral systems, and in recent years, combined behavioral and biological studies, primarily of alcohol effects on the brain and of the genetics of alcoholism, have begun the much more complex process of elucidating the links between biology and specific alcohol use behaviors. It is this combined research that ultimately will produce the pharmacological and behavioral interventions that will improve the efficiency and effectiveness of alcohol prevention and treatment methods.