The overall prevalence estimates and corresponding population estimates of alcohol abuse and dependence presented here do not differ greatly from those for the years 1984 (Williams et al. 1989) or 1988 (Grant et al. 1991), even though these earlier figures were based on diagnostic criteria from the DSM–III (APA 1980) and the DSM–III–R, respectively. The prevalence of DSM–III alcohol abuse and dependence reported by the 1984 National Survey on Alcohol Use was 8.58 percent for the total sample, with an associated population estimate of 15,100,000. The corresponding DSM–III–R prevalence rate for the 1988 National Health Interview Survey was 8.63 percent, representing 15,295,000 Americans. Although these figures are nearly identical to the prevalence of DSM–IV alcohol-related disorders found in the 1992 NLAES sample, caution must be exercised in assuming the stability of these rates between 1984 and 1992. Because definitions of disorders differed among the three surveys, no conclusions can be made concerning the rates of alcohol abuse and dependence over time.
