Patients meeting criteria for both DSM-IV and DSM-5 AUD had relatively high rates of mental health symptoms, drug use disorders, and recent negative consequences due to drinking. Moreover, almost three quarters of these patients who met both DSM-IV and DSM-5 criteria were somewhat or very interested in changing their drinking. In contrast, patients who met criteria for DSM-5 AUD alone, who by definition met criteria for mild DSM-5 AUD, tended to report fewer negative consequences due to drinking, less tobacco use and drug use disorders, and fewer symptoms of anxiety and depression. This is an expected finding since DSM-5 was designed to better capture less severe forms of AUD and to have dimensionality such that participants with fewer DSM criteria have a milder AUD [8–10]. Further, patients who met criteria for DSM-5 AUD alone had less readiness to change compared to patients who met both DSM-IV and DSM-5 criteria, despite having similar demographic characteristics. This association between alcohol-related symptom burden and readiness to change has been previously described [28], but the finding that DSM-5 identifies more of these patients with
