In this report, data from NESARC wave 1 were used to assess baseline characteristics. Mental disorders were ascertained based on DSM-IV criteria using the NIAAA’s Alcohol Use Disorder and Associated Disabilities Interview Schedule–DSM-IV Version (AUDADIS-IV)38;39 -- a structured diagnostic interview designed for use by lay interviewers to derive lifetime and 12-month substance use and mental disorders. Mood disorders included major depression, bipolar disorder and dysthymia. We focused on the experience of mood symptoms in the past year and distinguished between threshold and sub-threshold mood syndromes. Threshold mood syndromes were cases that met the full diagnostic criteria for the specific mood disorder. The sub-threshold mood syndromes were those which had some symptoms but did not meet all criteria, including the clinical significance criteria for any mood disorder. Other disorders assessed were current or lifetime alcohol abuse and dependence, drug abuse and dependence (heroin, other narcotics, cocaine, stimulants, hallucinogens, and/or marijuana), nicotine dependence, 12-month anxiety disorders (generalized anxiety, panic, and/or social anxiety), and personality disorders measured at both waves (antisocial, narcissistic, histrionic, borderline, schizoid, schizotypal, paranoid, obsessive-compulsive, dependent, and/or avoidant).
