Back to Annual Meeting Page		American Public Health Association 133rd Annual Meeting & Exposition December 10-14, 2005 Philadelphia, PA

Abstract #116729

Harold T. Yahr, PhD, Division of Epidemiology and Prevention Research, National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, NIH, 5635 Fishers Lane, MSC 9304, Bethesda, MD 20892-9304, 301-594-6230, hyahr@willco.niaaa.nih.gov

The alcohol dependence syndrome was originally conceived of as a condition of graded severity, i.e. continuous. (Edwards and Gross, 1976). However, for most of its' research history it has been treated as a dichotomous variable, e.g. DSM-IV requires that three out of seven dependence criteria be met in order to qualify for a dependence diagnosis. In the recent past, several studies have investigated the question of whether DSM-IV is a categorical or a continuous variable. There have been contradictory conclusions among studies. For example, Hasin and Paykin (1999) found evidence supporting a minimum of three symptoms for a dependency diagnosis, i.e. categorical whereas, Hasin (2003) found evidence that it was continuous. The current study investigates the question by means of a concurrent validity analysis. The study is based on data from a representative sample of the U.S. adult population collected in the 2001-2002 National Epidemiologic Survey on Alcohol and Related Conditions (NESARC). It was found that, controlling for gender, age and race/ethnicity, number of dependence criteria (from 1-7) was significantly, positively associated with all of the concurrent validity variables included in the study, i.e. level of ethanol consumption, treatment seeking, suicide ideation/attempts, and continued drinking despite prior blackout. These results support treating DSM-IV alcohol dependence as a continuous (criteria count) variable.

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