The current study’s analytic sample included 3,368 respondents who met criteria for DSM-5 AUD in the year prior to the W2 interview (10.3% of W2 respondents). Although the W2 NESARC assessment was designed to identify AUD based on DSM-IV criteria, its assessment of alcohol cravings permitted the creation of a past-year DSM-5 AUD diagnosis (Agrawal et al. 2011). A DSM-5 AUD diagnosis was chosen because of its increased validity over the DSM-IV diagnosis (Hasin et al. 2013) and to obviate the need to explore alcohol abuse versus dependence status for a more parsimonious analysis. DSM-5 requires that two or more of eleven diagnostic criteria be met for an AUD diagnosis (American Psychiatric Association 2013).
