The 1991–1992 National Longitudinal Alcohol Epidemiologic Survey (NLAES) is a nationally representative survey of non-institutionalized adults (18+) in the United States. The survey was sponsored by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA), with fieldwork conducted by the U.S. Census Bureau. Face-to-face interviews by experienced lay interviewers were completed on 42,862 individuals. The NLAES featured a complex multistage design, described in detail elsewhere (Grant, 1997, Grant et al., 2004). NLAES design elements are similar to the National Epidemiologic Survey on Alcohol and Related Conditions (NESARC) (Grant et al.). While recent psychometric studies have used the NESARC survey (conducted in 2001–2002) to evaluate diagnostic properties of various DSM algorithms (Kahler and Strong, 2006, Saha et al., 2006, Saha et al., 2007), this data set did not include a craving measure and thus could not be used for the present purpose. Analyses were restricted to NLAES respondents who drank at least 12 drinks in the past year (N=18,352), the NLAES definition of current drinkers.
