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Member Research & Reports

Member Research & Reports

Columbia Study Shows How the New Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders Can Help At-Risk Drinkers

The latest Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders – the DSM-5 — revises the diagnosis for alcohol use disorder (AUD) with several new criteria for professionals to take into account. Researchers at Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health, with colleagues from the department of psychiatry at University of São Paulo, Brazil, studied the new benchmarks to determine how they can be applied to target different prevention and treatment strategies. In particular, the new DSM-5-AUD information can help the experts identify risky drinkers and target a larger group of individuals for preventive interventions than they might have reached in the past.