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Linda B. Cottler, PhD

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text and any section headings.

Kessler and colleagues recently published 4 articles^1-4 reporting lifetime and 12-month prevalence rates, age at onset, and estimates of treatment use for DSM-IV psychiatric and substance use disorders (SUDs) from the National Comorbidity Survey Replication (NCS-R) study. However, methods used in the NCS to collect SUDs have substantial limitations that were not mentioned in the Commentary⁵ or any of the 4 articles.

First, the World Mental Health–Composite International Diagnostic Interview (WMH-CIDI)⁶ makes a generic diagnosis of "drug abuse and/or dependence," rather than making individual abuse and dependence diagnoses. The problem in this is that there are numerous types of drugs to independently assess (such as opiates, cocaine and other stimulants, sedatives, cannabis, and others), and yet they are all lumped together even though each has its own age at onset and abuse and dependence criteria. The DSM-IV does not specify a generic drug abuse or dependence . . . [Full Text of this Article]

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