Although the final DSM-5 criteria for AUD were not published at the time the CHOICE trial began, the addition of a craving criterion was expected. All CHOICE trial participants were therefore also asked the following question about craving, after the DSM-IV MINI: “Was there ever a time in your life when you often had such a strong desire to drink that you couldn’t stop yourself from taking a drink or found it difficult to think of anything else?” from the National Epidemiologic Survey on Alcohol and Related Conditions (NESARC) [19]. Of note, the question’s timeframe of “ever” was inadvertently not changed to the “past year” for use in our measure of past year DSM-5 AUD, and the prevalence of lifetime craving is likely greater than past year craving.
