Study Finding Huge Jump in Alcoholism May Have Been Seriously Flawed

Last week, multiple media outlets, including the Washington Post and Bloomberg, — but not Kane’s Beverage News Daily —  reported on a study in JAMA Psychiatry that had an alarming finding: The rate of alcohol use disorder (alcoholism) in the US increased by more than 49% from 2001-’02 and 2012-’13.

Now some researchers are pushing back, German Lopez reports at Vox.  They argue that the data used in the study is based on a federal survey that underwent major methodological changes between 2001-’02 and 2012-’13 — meaning the increase in alcoholism rates could be entirely explained just by differences in how the survey was carried out between the two time periods.

When Lopez asked about these problems surrounding the study, lead author Bridget Grant, with NIAAA, shot back by email: “There were no changes in NESARC methodology between waves and NSDUH folks know nothing about the NESARC. Please do not contact me again as I don’t know NSDUH methodology and would not be so presumptuous to believe I did.”

But based on SAMHSA’s and Grucza’s separate reviews of NESARC, its methodology did change.

And when Lopez pressed on this, Grant again responded, “Please do NOT contact me again.”

But after Vox published its article, Grant confirmed NESARC went through some methodological changes between 2001-’02 and 2012-’13. But she argued that there’s no evidence such changes would have a significant impact on the results.

This entry was posted in Health, What We're Reading and tagged , . Bookmark the permalink.