In the early 1980s, the National Institutes of Mental Health sponsored the Epidemiologic Catchment Area (ECA) survey, the largest psychiatric, epidemiologic study ever done in the US. The diagnostic instrument developed for this survey, the Diagnostic Interview Schedule (DIS), has now received numerous translations and is being used for clinical and epidemiolgic work throughout the world.

Several countries have now completed major epidemiologic surveys using the DIS. This presents a unique opportunity for cross-national comparison of psychiatric disorders. This volume reviews population survey findings for alcoholism across cultural regions in North America, Europe and Asia. The book carefully describes the background of the various surveys and the methods of analysis and comparison. Chapters on each region describe the prevalence of drinking problems, the symptomatic expression of alcoholism in that culture, aspects of the cultural background that are relevant to drinking behaviour, and the association between alcoholism and its symptoms.