National Epidemiologic Survey on Alcohol and Related Conditions (NESARC)

National Institute of Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism

August, 2004

An estimated 17.6 million American adults (8.5 percent) meet standard diagnostic criteria for an alcohol use disorder according to results from the 2001-2002 National Epidemiologic Survey on Alcohol and Related Conditions (NESARC) reported in the current Archives of General Psychiatry [Volume 61, August 2004: 807-816].

Conducted by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, National Institutes of Health, the NESARC is a representative survey of the U.S. civilian noninstitutionalized population aged 18 years and older. With more than 43,000 adult Americans participating, the NESARC is the largest study ever conducted of the co-occurrence of psychiatric disorders among U.S. adults.

The NESARC is the first national epidemiologic survey to use the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders-Fourth Edition (DSM-IV) definitions of independent mood and anxiety disorders to examine the comorbidity, or co-occurrence, of mental health disorders. The NESARC results show substantial comorbidity between substance use disorders and independent mood and anxiety disorders is pervasive in the U.S. general population.

"This study does not resolve questions about causal mechanisms that may underlie relationships between DSM-IV substance use and mood and anxiety disorders," according to Bridget Grant, Ph.D., Chief of the Laboratory of Epidemiology and Biometry, Division of Intramural Clinical and Biological Research. "Analyses of data from NESARC's 'second wave' in 2004-2005 will help to form a foundation for future etiologic research."