In this report, we attempt to replicate the findings of recent reports (e.g., Agrawal et al., 2011; Mewton et al., 2011), evaluating the consequences of the proposed modification of diagnostic criteria from DSM-IV AA and AD to DSM-5 AUD, and using lifetime diagnosis rather than 12-month prevalence as the focal phenotype. Furthermore, we expand on those analyses using a genetically informative sample of population-based twins. We employ four methods: i) a comparison of the clinical characteristics of three groups: individuals meeting DSM-IV but not DSM-5 criteria (D4-only), those meeting DSM-5 but not DSM-IV criteria (D5-only), and those meeting both DSM-IV and DSM-5 criteria (D4D5); ii) a factor analysis of AA and AD symptoms, with the primary objective of evaluating the factor loading for the legal problems symptom; iii) an IRT analysis, with the objective of evaluating the parameters of the legal problems symptom relative to other AA and AD symptoms; and iv) a genetic epidemiologic approach, wherein we test for genetic influences loading onto DSM-5 AUD but not DSM-IV AA/AD.
