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The Relationship Between Excessive Alcohol Consumption and Alcohol Use Disorders According to DSM ‐ IV and DSM ‐5
Author(s) -
Tuithof Marlous,
ten Have Margreet,
van den Brink Wim,
Vollebergh Wilma,
de Graaf Ron
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
alcoholism: clinical and experimental research
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.267
H-Index - 153
eISSN - 1530-0277
pISSN - 0145-6008
DOI - 10.1111/acer.12248
Subject(s) - alcohol use disorder , dsm 5 , medicine , psychiatry , population , alcohol , mental health , alcohol consumption , clinical psychology , psychology , environmental health , biochemistry , chemistry
Background Although it seems intuitive that alcohol use disorders ( AUD s) include excessive alcohol consumption ( EAC ), this notion is not well established. This study investigates to which degree EAC (defined as >14/21 drinks weekly for women/men and at least three 5+ drinking days per week) and AUD overlap and whether problematic alcohol use groups ( EAC ‐only, AUD ‐only, and EAC + AUD ) differ from each other and from nonproblematic alcohol users regarding sociodemographics, mental health problems, functioning, and service utilization. Methods Data were derived from the N etherlands M ental H ealth S urvey and I ncidence S tudy‐2, a population‐based study including 5,443 current drinkers (aged 18 to 64) interviewed with the C omposite I nternational D iagnostic I nterview 3.0. Both DSM ‐ IV AUD s and a proxy of DSM ‐5 AUD are considered. Results Of the current drinkers, 3.8% reported 12‐month EAC . Twelve‐month prevalence of DSM ‐ IV and DSM ‐5 AUD were 5.4 and 4.4%, respectively. Regarding DSM ‐ IV , only 17.7% of subjects with AUD reported EAC and 25.3% of those with EAC had an AUD . Compared with nonproblematic alcohol users, the 3 groups of problematic alcohol use ( EAC ‐only, AUD ‐only, and EAC + AUD ) were more often associated with mental health problems, poorer functioning, and service utilization. There were few differences between EAC ‐only and AUD ‐only regarding these correlates. However, EAC + AUD had strongest associations with above‐mentioned correlates compared with the other 3 groups. Compared with DSM ‐ IV findings, DSM ‐5 AUD s had slightly larger overlap with EAC , but correlates were similarly associated with problematic alcohol use groups. Conclusions Findings indicate limited overlap between EAC and AUD . Yet, both dimensions were similarly associated with other problems suggesting that both should be included in future epidemiological research to detect the total group of problematic alcohol users.