Understanding Dual Diagnosis
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Complex circumstances call for intricate solutions and the first step to discovering the appropriate approaches to pressing situations such as dual diagnosis is by gaining an understanding of its nature thoroughly.
The term dual diagnosis is used to refer to people who are diagnosed of having a mental illness and a substance abuse problem at the same time.
A group of scholars from the US conducted a study that was aimed at determining the frequency of dual diagnosis occurrence amongst locals. It was found out that 47% of the respondents who have schizophrenia were into substance misuse. It was also observed that people suffering from psychotic illnesses are most likely to develop substance misuse or substance abuse disorders. The entire study, which studied cases of both alcohol and drug misuse, was able to determine that 33% of those who were given dual diagnoses have both alcohol and drug problems; 20% have alcohol problems only; and only 5% are found to have been addicted to drugs.
Decades of medical and psychological studies that sought to understand dual diagnosis have yielded several theories.
The most basic of these is the Causality theory which presupposes that substance abuse may eventually result to the development of a mental illness.
The Multiple Risk Factor Theory, a thesis formulated by Kim Mueser, identified certain risk factors that trigger substance abuse and mental illness. Depression, poverty, high exposure drug availability, and traumatic life events are only some of the many factors that can be associated with the unfolding of psychiatric and substance abuse problems.
Several experts believe that severe mental illnesses can actually be traced by studying both a patient's genetic make-up and life events that may have caused the patient to be entirely vulnerable. The Supersensitivity theorists thus believe that people who already have mental illnesses are most likely to be in worst conditions when they submit themselves to substance misuse even at very low levels.
Stimulants such as nicotine or amphetamines are substances that can counter the negative side effects of antipsychotic treatments. This gave birth to the Self-medication theory which presupposes that people with acute mental illnesses relieve specific symptoms of the illness or combats the effects of medications through drug or substance abuse.
Everyday pessimists have it that people who have mental health problems and are, at the same time, dependent on drugs or alcohol would surely have a hard time finding appropriate treatment opportunities. This is due to the fact that most alcoholism treatment and drug addiction treatment centers would not admit people who are already in severe psychiatric conditions. Many mental institutions, on the other hand, are so focused on dealing with only mental health-related cases, and thus would be seen as not entirely competent in treating substance abuse.
People who fall into complicated mental health and substance dependence problems need to undergo a holistic alcohol rehab and drug rehab program. It would only take persistence to finding the best recovery and rehab centers within the locality because although versatile institutions are hard to find, they are definitely not impossible to locate.