Corrigendum: How many People have Alcohol Use Disorders? Using the Harmful Dysfunction Analysis to Rectify Prevalence Rates in Two Community Surveys

THE PROBLEM In our recent paper (1), guided by the harmful dysfunction (HD) analysis of mental disorder (2) and the impairedcontrol conception of AUD (3), we calculated new HD-type prevalence estimates for lifetime and 1-year AUD using data from two community surveys, the Epidemiological Catchment Area Survey (ECA) (4) and the National Comorbidity Study (NCS) (5). We compared rates across studies, and within the NCS, we compared rates yielded by different AUD definitions. These included two definitions we constructed for HD AUD and DSM-5 AUD, as well as standard NCSdefined variables for DSM-IV AUD (abuse or dependence) and DSM-IV dependence. We also assessed validity, unmet need, and remission based on these competing definitions. A provocative finding in the NCS analysis was that the HD remission rate (defined as the percentage of those having lifetime AUD that do not also have 1-year AUD) was lower than remission rates derived using standard criteria. The finding of lower remission for HD-defined disorder potentially conflicted with the recent claim that AUD is not as persistent as traditionally thought (6, 7). This claimed lack of persistence has been the basis for questioning the nature of AUD and even whether it is a disorder at all. In unpublished work, we attempted to replicate the NCS remission findings using another dataset, the National Epidemiologic Survey of Alcohol and Related Conditions (NESARC) (8). However, the lower HD remission rate was not replicated. HD remission was high and similar to remission rates using standard NESARC criteria.