Alcohol Dependence and Abuse Diagnoses

Abstract

Despite the widespread influence of the alcohol dependence syndrome concept on the major nosological classification systems, little work has been done to test the validity of the alcohol dependence syndrome in community samples. In addition, numerous questions have been asked about the validity of current definitions of alcohol abuse. We examined the cross-sectional validity of DSM-IV alcohol dependence and abuse in 936 household residents randomly selected and screened for elevated drinking. We investigated validity by testing the association of a set of seven "criterion" variables, external to the alcohol diagnostic criteria, with dependence and abuse diagnoses. Results indicated that dependence diagnoses were significantly associated with all criterion variables when compared to those with no diagnosis, even though all subjects had elevated drinking and the cases of alcohol dependence were mild. In contrast, abuse diagnoses did not show a pattern of association with the criterion variables when compared to no diagnosis. When associations were tested comparing dependence cases to those with abuse only, results were mixed. This study is one in a series of investigations in this sample of household residents screened for elevated drinking levels.

Mental health service utilization for psychiatric disorders among Latinos living in the United States: the role of ethnic subgroup, ethnic identity, and language/social preferences

“…Test–retest reliability in Latinos was good to excellent for alcohol dependence and depression diagnoses [22]. Validity was also demonstrated in numerous studies [39, 40, 43, 49, 50, 52, 54], including a WHO/NIH study [24, 30, 52, 75, 87, 93]. …”

Peptic Ulcer and Mental Disorders Among Adults in the Community: The Role of Nicotine and Alcohol Use Disorders

“…Test-retest reliability of the alcohol dependence diagnosis in the AUDADIS-IV have ranged from good to excellent ( K = 0.70-0.84); details of the diagnoses as well as reliability and validity have been documented elsewhere. 20,27,28,32, 33-41 …”

Reasons for Limiting Drinking in an HIV Primary Care Sample

“…A substantial proportion with alcohol dependence also allowed for analyses by dependence status. Additionally, this study measured alcohol consumption and dependence using the AUDADIS, a well-validated measure used extensively in the US and abroad (Hasin et al, 1997b, Caetano et al, 2010, Dawson et al, 1995, Moss et al, 2010, Shmulewitz et al, 2012, Keyes et al, 2008, Canino et al, 1999, Carpenter and Hasin, 1998, Hasin et al, 1997a), and yields a new scale that could be used in assessing reasons for limiting drinking in future research. Future research using this scale could help determine whether: (a) the factor structure replicates in confirmatory factor analyses in similar samples, (b) findings generalize to HIV-positive drinkers that differ in demographic composition or drinking level, and (c) specifically incorporating reasons for limiting drinking in the domains specified by the subscales would serve as useful components of drinking-reduction interventions with HIV-positive heavy drinkers.…”

“…Three or more of the assessed criteria were required for diagnosis, consistent with the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-IV) (American Psychiatric Association, 1994). The AUDADIS diagnosis of alcohol dependence has very good reliability and validity (Canino et al, 1999, Grant et al, 2003, Grant et al, 1995, Hasin et al, 1997b, Hasin et al, 2006, Hasin et al, 2007). …”