diff --git a/Project.toml b/Project.toml
index 3a1070bf..2b90f50b 100644
--- a/Project.toml
+++ b/Project.toml
@@ -23,6 +23,7 @@ Serialization = "9e88b42a-f829-5b0c-bbe9-9e923198166b"
 SpecialFunctions = "276daf66-3868-5448-9aa4-cd146d93841b"
 Statistics = "10745b16-79ce-11e8-11f9-7d13ad32a3b2"
 StatsBase = "2913bbd2-ae8a-5f71-8c99-4fb6c76f3a91"
+StatsModelComparisons = "854dedd9-9477-4a25-907d-7fd989bfdd01"
 TableTraits = "3783bdb8-4a98-5b6b-af9a-565f29a5fe9c"
 Tables = "bd369af6-aec1-5ad0-b16a-f7cc5008161c"
 
@@ -40,6 +41,7 @@ PrettyTables = "0.9, 0.10, 0.11"
 RecipesBase = "0.7, 0.8, 1.0"
 SpecialFunctions = "^0.8, 0.9, 0.10, 1.0"
 StatsBase = "0.32, 0.33"
+StatsModelComparisons = "0.1.1"
 TableTraits = "0.4, 1"
 Tables = "1"
 julia = "1"
diff --git a/src/MCMCChains.jl b/src/MCMCChains.jl
index 2d4ea079..8269b232 100644
--- a/src/MCMCChains.jl
+++ b/src/MCMCChains.jl
@@ -24,6 +24,8 @@ import Random
 import Serialization
 import Statistics: std, cor, mean, var, mean!
 
+using StatsModelComparisons
+
 export Chains, chains, chainscat
 export setrange, resetrange
 export set_section, get_params, sections, sort_sections, setinfo
@@ -34,7 +36,7 @@ export summarize
 
 # Export diagnostics functions
 export discretediag, gelmandiag, gewekediag, heideldiag, rafterydiag
-export hpd, ess
+export hpd, ess, dic
 
 export rstar
 
diff --git a/src/modelstats.jl b/src/modelstats.jl
index a8e6a732..b3f95dce 100644
--- a/src/modelstats.jl
+++ b/src/modelstats.jl
@@ -1,49 +1,13 @@
-export dic
-
 #################### Posterior Statistics ####################
 
 """
-    dic(chain::Chains, logpdf::Function) -> (DIC, pD)
+    dic(chain::Chains, loglik::Symbol)
 
-Compute the deviance information criterion (DIC).
-(Smaller is better)
+Compute the deviance information criterion (DIC) from `chain` on posterior log likelihood samples specified by parameter name `loglik`.
 
 Note: DIC assumes that the posterior distribution is approx. multivariate Gaussian and tends to select overfitted models.
-
-## Returns:
-* `DIC`: The calculated deviance information criterion
-* `pD`: The effective number of parameters
-
-## Usage:
-
-```
-chn ... # sampling results
-lpfun = function f(chain::Chains) # function to compute the logpdf values
-    niter, nparams, nchains = size(chain)
-    lp = zeros(niter + nchains) # resulting logpdf values
-    for i = 1:nparams
-        lp += map(p -> logpdf( ... , x), Array(chain[:,i,:]))
-    end
-    return lp
-end
-
-DIC, pD = dic(chn, lpfun)
-```
-
 """
-function dic(chain::Chains, logpdf::Function)
-
-    # expectation of each parameter
-    Eθ = reshape(mean(Array(chain), dims = [1,3]), 1,:,1)
-    Echain = Chains(Eθ)
-    EθD = -2*mean(logpdf(Echain))
-
-    D = -2*logpdf(chain)
-    ED = mean(D)
-
-    pD = 2*(ED - EθD)
-
-    DIC = EθD + pD
-
-    return DIC, pD
+function StatsModelComparisons.dic(chain::Chains, loglik::Symbol)
+    lps = Array(chain[:, loglik, :])
+    return dic(vec(lps))
 end
diff --git a/test/modelstats_test.jl b/test/modelstats_test.jl
index e8c21963..d9d63ca8 100644
--- a/test/modelstats_test.jl
+++ b/test/modelstats_test.jl
@@ -2,43 +2,11 @@ using Test, Random
 using MCMCChains
 using Distributions
 
-## Test Chain
-# Define the experiment
-n_iter = 4000
-n_name = 3
-n_chain = 2
-
-# observations
-Random.seed!(1234)
-x = map(i -> i + 2e-1*randn(), 1:n_name)
-
-# some sample experiment results
-Random.seed!(1234)
-val1 = 0.5*randn(n_iter, n_name, n_chain) .+ x'
-val2 = 2*randn(n_iter, n_name, n_chain) .+ x'
-
-# construct a Chains object
-chn1 = Chains(val1)
-chn2 = Chains(val2)
-
-lpfun = function f(chain::Chains)
-
-    p1 = Array(chain[:,1,:])
-    p2 = Array(chain[:,2,:])
-    p3 = Array(chain[:,3,:])
-
-    lp = map(p -> logpdf(Normal(p), x[1]), p1)
-    lp += map(p -> logpdf(Normal(p), x[2]), p2)
-    lp += map(p -> logpdf(Normal(p), x[3]), p3)
-
-    return lp
-end
-
 @testset "deviance information criterion" begin
-
-    DIC1, pD1 = dic(chn1, lpfun)
-    DIC2, pD2 = dic(chn2, lpfun)
-
-    @test DIC1 < DIC2
-    @test pD1 < pD2
+    # Ensure function at least runs
+    chain = Chains(rand(100, 2, 1), [:a, :b])
+    val = dic(chain, :a) 
+    @test isa(val, Float64)
+    # Should fail if variable does not exist
+    @test_throws ArgumentError dic(chain, :c) 
 end