Concordance of diagnoses between International Classification of Diseases (ICD) 11th and 10th revisions for alcohol dependence and harmful use and its implications for psychiatric care

Background: WHO has revised International Classification of Diseases (ICD) to 11th edition. There are some important changes in description of the diseases. Transition is expected to throw some challenges. We focused on the expected challenges and implications with new description of Alcohol Dependence Syndrome and Harmful Use of Alcohol. Aim: To study concordance between diagnoses of alcohol dependence, harmful use of alcohol as per ICD-10 and ICD-11. Materials and Methods: 233 personnel who visited psychiatry department of a service hospital first time for the evaluation and management of alcohol use disorders participated in the study. They were evaluated independently by two psychiatrists and diagnosed as per descriptions in ICD-10 and ICD-11 bluebook. The concordance was assessed using Cohen’s kappa. Results: 190 participants were diagnosed with alcohol dependence syndrome as per both ICD-10 and ICD-11. Thirty-six participants were diagnosed with harmful use of alcohol as per ICD-11 and 26 as per ICD-10. The concordance between ICD-11 and ICD-10 alcohol dependence was almost perfect with kappa value 0.97 and between the harmful use strong with kappa value of 0.82. Ten participants (27.8%) were diagnosed with a history of harm to others, and one patient was diagnosed harmful use on single use. Conclusion: There is not likely any major change in person getting diagnosed with alcohol dependence, but new system would help persons getting benefit of early intervention for harmful use of alcohol.