Dual Diagnosis
What is Dual Diagnosis?
The term “dual diagnosis” refers to someone suffering from both a drug or alcohol addiction and a co-occurring psychiatric illness, such as bipolar disorder or depression. It’s an area of addiction medicine that has grown rapidly in recent years, leading to better understanding and advances in treatment.
According to a report published by the Journal of the American Medical Association*:
- Thirty-seven percent of alcohol abusers and 53 percent of drug abusers also have at least one serious mental illness.
- Of all people diagnosed as mentally ill, 29 percent abuse either alcohol or drugs.
Why is Dual Diagnosis treatment more complex?
The two illnesses can actually exacerbate each other, and it becomes difficult to determine which symptoms are caused by which disorder. For example, psychiatric symptoms can be masked by drug use.
Conversely, drug or alcohol use (or withdrawal from drugs/alcohol) can cause behaviors that mimic psychiatric conditions. An untreated psychiatric illness can lead to drug abuse or alcohol abuse – and untreated drug addiction can cause reoccurrence of psychiatric symptoms.
With symptoms and causal relationships so tightly intertwined, it’s important to choose experienced dual diagnosis professionals.
Dual Treatment Specialists, all under one roof.
The Treatment Center specializes in helping those with dual diagnoses through an integrated treatment model.
- First, you’ll experience a safe, trauma-free and medically supervised detoxification process.
- Next, you’ll begin simultaneous treatment for both your addiction and your psychiatric disorder – all with one team of professionals who are united in your treatment plan.
- Even better, all of your treatment will occur on a single campus so that you can concentrate on your recovery, without disruption.
* Comorbidity of mental disorders with alcohol and other drug abuse. Results from the Epidemiologic Catchment Area (ECA) Study
Vol. 264 No. 19, November 21, 1990
http://jama.ama-assn.org/cgi/content/abstract/264/19/2511
