Table 2 shows the lifetime prevalences of AUDs for NLAES and NESARC, as well as past-12 month prevalences for purposes of comparison, for both the entire sample (upper panel of Table 2) and excluding lifetime abstainers (bottom panel of Table 2). The rates of AUD are further decomposed by dependence and abuse. As illustrated in Table 2, the discrepant lifetimes rates of AUD between NLAES and NESARC appears to be largely driven by rates of alcohol abuse (4.88% in NLAES, 17.80% in NESARC for full sample). Although there appears to be some increase in past-12 month abuse from NLAES to NESARC, the overall pattern of findings suggests that the major increase in lifetime abuse across the two surveys does not likely reflect a secular trend unless there was an unlikely large period effect occurring during the ten-year interval that was very short-lived. This is true regardless of whether lifetime abstainers are included in the estimates of AUD prevalences1.
