This study was designed to examine the agreement of DSM-IV alcohol and
drug use disorder diagnoses generated by three WHO/NIH diagnostic
instruments, the AUDADIS-ADR, the CIDI, and the SCAN. This substudy,
conducted in three countries, Greece; Luxembourg, and the United States:
was parr of the larger joint project on diagnosis and classification of
mental disorders and alcohol and drug-related problems, which was
initiated to evaluate the cross-cultural applicability of the
instruments and the criteria. Overall, concordance among the three
assessments was good for alcohol and opiate dependence, fair to good for
cocaine and sedative dependence, and low for amphetamine dependence.
Cannabis dependence concordance was significantly more discrepant than
any other substance. Agreement on abuse was low for all substances
examined. In addition, the concordance of DSM-IV criteria for each
substance was examined. Finally, reasons for discrepancies in responses
among assessments were examined: based on discrepancy interview protocol
methodology. Further investigation will help to refine these instruments
in order to provide a more thorough understanding of alcohol and drug
abuse diagnoses. (C) 1997 Elsevier Science Ireland Ltd
