While broad personality dimensions are very useful for many purposes, they are not a complete solution to the curse of dimensionality. Some previous analyses have been statistically biased in favor of broad dimensions [30], but currently the psychopathology field is moving toward broad-to-narrow hierarchical representations [6]. Proponents of these emerging models point out that “complete symptom-level data are rarely available” and that this lack of data is the primary reason for scarcity of criterion-/symptom-level studies [6]. Thus, although the present study does not specifically concentrate on old versus emerging models of psychiatric nosology, it may be useful for research both on alcohol and on nosology as we analyze “complete symptom-level data” on all PDs currently in clinical use.
