consistently higher in prevalence in each gender by age group, whereas the prevalence of the remaining eight symptom criteria was lower. This disparity in prevalence may introduce bias into DSM-IV AUD assessment and indicate problems with the measurement of these criteria as well as with the criteria themselves. The higher prevalence of these symptoms in younger drinkers (Table 1) may, in part, be due to variations in symptom interpretation by individuals of different ages and may result in over-estimation of diagnosis for younger age groups.
