Chunk #2 — Measurement invariance of DSM-IV alcohol, marijuana, and cocaine dependence between community-sampled and clinically over-selected studies — Structure of multiple SUDs
SUD symptoms for individual substances are consistently found to be unidimensional. Further, problems with multiple substances may also represent a single continuum. SUDs tend to positively correlate across a wide range of specific substances. That is, problems with any given substance often predict a common liability to SUDs in general, rather than liability to problems with only a single, specific substance. Certain risk factors contribute to risk of problems with a range of substances. For example, early-adolescent characteristics (such as aggression and delinquency) predict increased rates of SUDs in early adulthood, but do not differentiate between substances. That is, we may expect that a person exposed to these risk factors is at an increased risk of any SUD, but we have limited ability to predict which specific substance(s) will become problematic. [20]
