A Comparison of ICD-10 and DSM-III-R Criteria for Substance Abuse and Dependence

As part of DSM-IV field trials for substance use disorders, 100 inpatients from two psychiatric substance abuse units were interviewed using a modified version of the Substance Abuse Module (SAM) to ascertain substance use diagnoses according to ICD-10 and DSM-III-R criteria. Both criteria sets developed from the theoretical framework presented by Gross and Edwards (1976) and thus, they should demonstrate close concurrence in diagnoses of dependence and abuse/harmful use. The kappa scores obtained in these analyses demonstrate good to excellent agreement on the diagnoses of dependence across substances. There was poor agreement between DSM-III-R and ICD-10 for abuse/harmful use diagnoses. Although there is generally good agreement between DSM-III-R and ICD-10 for substance dependence diagnoses, important differences exist between the two criteria sets both for the diagnoses of abuse and harmful use, and for the diagnosis of marijuana dependence. These differences are primarily due to the inclusion of social problems and repeated use of substances in hazardous situations as DSM-III-R criteria.