Since the early 1900s, numerous definitions of Alcohol Use Disorders (AUD’s) have been proposed.  Currently, in the United States, the clinical standard used for defining and diagnosing AUD’s is the American Psychiatric Association’s Diagnostic and Statistical Manual, Fourth Edition (DSM-IV). Definitions of alcohol abuse (this slide) and dependence (slide 21) appearing in the DSM-IV both describe maladaptive patterns of alcohol use leading to clinically significant impairment or distress.    In this slide, criteria for abuse are compared to criteria for harmful use of alcohol as defined by the World Health Organization’s International Classification of Disease.

Of the 8.5% of U.S. adults (17.6 million people) who met diagnostic criteria for Alcohol Use Disorders in 2001-2002, 4.65% (9.7 million) were classified with Alcohol Abuse and 3.81% (7.9 million) were classified with Alcohol Dependence.