NOSOLOGICAL COMPARISONS OF DSM-III-R AND DSM-IV ALCOHOL-ABUSE AND DEPENDENCE IN A CLINICAL FACILITY - COMPARISON WITH THE 1988 NATIONAL-HEALTH INTERVIEW SURVEY RESULTS
Ds. Hasin et B. Grant, NOSOLOGICAL COMPARISONS OF DSM-III-R AND DSM-IV ALCOHOL-ABUSE AND DEPENDENCE IN A CLINICAL FACILITY - COMPARISON WITH THE 1988 NATIONAL-HEALTH INTERVIEW SURVEY RESULTS, Alcoholism, clinical and experimental research, 18(2), 1994, pp. 272-279
The purpose of this study was to compare DSM-III-R and proposed formul
ations of DSM-IV diagnoses of alcohol use disorders in a clinical samp
le with the same assessment methods used in a large national survey pr
eviously reported. Issues included the number of symptoms required for
abuse and dependence diagnoses, the effects of requiring evidence of
physiological dependence to make the dependence diagnosis (Option 1 vs
. Option 2), whether to require a duration criterion, and the concept
of alcohol abuse. The diagnostic criteria proposed in the 1991 DSM-IV
options book were the criteria investigated in this study. Concordance
between DSM-III-R and DSM-IV was closest when the form of DSM-IV used
was most similar to DSM-IIII-R. The duration criterion had much less
effect on a dependence diagnosis in this clinical sample than in the g
eneral population. DSM-IV Option 2 for alcohol dependence excluded a n
umber of cases from the dependence diagnosis who received such a diagn
osis under DSM-III R and DSM-IV Option 1. Abuse continued to function
as a residual category, especially noticeable under increasingly restr
ictive definitions of dependence, and was rare in both the clinical an
d general population sample. Implications of the findings for research
and other purposes are discussed.