DSM‐IV, DSM‐III‐R, and ICD‐10 Alcohol and Drug Abuse/Harmful Use and Dependence, United States, 1992: A Nosological Comparison

This study assessed agreement between DSM-IV, DSM-III-R, and ICD-10 diagnoses of alcohol and drug use disorders using data from a large representative sample of the United States population. Agreement between the three diagnostic systems for dependence was good to excellent for past year, prior to the past year, and life-time diagnoses, for both genders, each ethnic group, and younger and older respondents. Cross-system comparisons between DSM-IV and DSM-III-R abuse were good to excellent, but concordance was consistently poor when ICD-10 harmful use diagnoses were compared with DSM-IV and DSM-III-R abuse diagnoses. Implications of these results are discussed in terms of the degree to which future research findings could be integrated with one another and the results from earlier studies using older versions of the DSM, to advance scientific knowledge in the drug and alcohol fields.