Back to Annual Meeting

Back to Annual Meeting

APHA Scientific Session and Event Listing

Tulshi D. Saha, LEB, National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA)/NIH, 5635 Fishers Lane, Room 3080, Rockville, MD 20892-9304, 301-443-0017, sahatd@mail.nih.gov

This study applied Item Response Theory (IRT) to examine the psychometric properties of the DSM-IV tobacco withdrawal criteria, using data from The National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism's 2001-2002 National Epidemiologic Survey on Alcohol and Related Conditions (NESARC). Using the nationally representative sample of 43,093 adults, data were analyzed for tobacco smokers (N=11,393). Exploratory factor analysis showed a single strong common dimension of all DSM-IV 8 tobacco withdrawal criteria. A two-parameter logistic IRT model was used to determine the severity and discrimination of each DSM –IV criteria. The results showed that all tobacco withdrawal diagnostic criteria were able to detect differences in severity of tobacco withdrawal. In particular, criteria such as restlessness, and difficult concentrating had the greatest discriminatory power and lowest severity than any other criterion.

Learning Objectives:

• The results of this IRT analyses can be used to inform future revision of the DSM and ICD.
• Discrimination, severity and/or information values associated with specific tobacco withdrawal criteria can be used as weights in the development of a dimensional scale of tobacco withdrawal continuum.
• Since this dimensional scale is directly related to the criteria of the categorical classification of tobacco withdrawal disorder appearing in DSM IV, it can form the basis of a second new axis in further revisions.

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Not Answered