Given recent arguments for and evidence of the desirable qualities of dimensional as opposed to categorical measures of AUD (Hasin and Beseler, 2009; Hasin et al., 2006; Helzer et al., 2006, 2007), IRT models also have been used to create summary measures of AUD severity. Kahler et al. (2003) used IRT models to derive a new, empirically-based scoring system for selected ADS items. The reduced ADS was as highly correlated as the full ADS with frequency of heavy drinking, the Alcohol Use Disorder Identification Test (AUDIT, Saunders et al., 1993) and the drug and alcohol subscales of the Psychiatric Diagnostic Screening Questionnaire (Zimmerman and Mattia, 2001) in a sample of high-risk drinkers. Using data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health, Kahler et al. (2009) reported that consumption and problem measures could be combined to create a valid index of alcohol involvement. Items ranged from having consumed 12+ drinks in the past year or gotten drunk at the low end of the severity spectrum to having school problems and daily drinking at the high end.
