Other recent studies have explored individual components of the proposed diagnostic changes or used smaller/selected samples. Findings generally support the inclusion of an item addressing craving (Keyes et al., 2011, Casey et al., 2012) and indicate that the combination of current abuse and dependence criteria is appropriate, as these items typically load onto a single factor (Casey et al., 2012; Hasin et al., 2012). In addition, research suggests that, except in the case of illicit substances such as cannabis and cocaine (Gillespie et al., 2007), the criterion addressing legal problems is rarely endorsed and is inconsistently informative (Hasin et al., 2012; Hagman et al., 2011); thus, its exclusion is unlikely to adversely impact diagnosis.
