Dual Diagnosis Rehab Treatment Center

"Addiction is a chronic medical illness, and it therefore should be treated as such," says Dr. Mohammad. Many people use substances to self-medicate, but they end up doing further damage to their minds and bodies. This invariably affects their whole lives -- their family, friends, work and general well-being..."

Dr. A. R. Mohammad

America's leading expert on dual diagnosis rehab and treatment

Dr. Mohammad has focused his professional career on treating patients with addictions and co-occurring disorders. Malibu Horizon truly is the leader in dual diagnosis rehab and treatment. Look carefully at other Malibu treatment centers sites and you will not find a psychiatrist, let alone one as qualified as Dr. Mohammad.

With over a decade of general medicine and psychiatry experience, Dr. Mohammad is certified in Addiction Medicine by the American Society of Addiction Medicine and board certified in Neurology. He is the Assistant Clinical Professor of Psychiatry and the Behavioral Sciences at the University Of Southern California (USC), where he is active in research and in teaching and training of residents and students.

Malibu Horizon's psychiatrist was the dual diagnosis expert speaker for The National Alliance for the Mentally Ill California Convention. He also presented in the role of "Ask the Doctor", also at the NAMI Convention in 2009 and 2010.

"All of these conditions -- and many others -- can be treated successfully," explains Dr. Mohammad. "And, these underlying conditions must be addressed if a patient is going to successfully and fully recover."

Dr. A. R. Mohammad .

Dual Diagnosis Statistics

• 60% of the people diagnosed with a bipolar condition also suffer from addiction
  
  
• 30-50% of the ADHD population suffers from addiction
  
  
• 25% of those diagnosed with anxiety and/or depression suffer from addiction
  

Looking beyond the symptoms to the cause of the dual diagnosis

At our facility, we treat the entire person to ensure a more fulfilling life and long-term success.

At Malibu Horizon, we treat the entire patient. Many centers focus only on the treatment for drug or alcohol abuse. We look beyond the symptoms and address the underlying causes.

Often this underlying cause presents as a clinical depression, an anxiety disorder -- or any combination of other possible conditions.

 

Dual Diagnosis Rehab and World Class Treatment

Upon arrival, each patient is carefully evaluated and assessed through a combination of tests and interviews. Our staff is especially trained to properly diagnose a dual condition.

Malibu Horizon is dedicated to offering the most innovative and the highest quality non 12 step alcohol and drug treatment to eliminate addiction and dependency. With dignity and compassion, we provide our clients and their families with a complete continuum of treatment services that are personalized to fit the needs of each client.

Dual Diagnosis Rehab Treatment at its Very Best

The best dual diagnosis rehab and treatment center in the country is Malibu Horizon. Other Malibu treatment centers do not offer real scientifically based, psychiatric treatment. Malibu Horizon uses the latest clinical research to effer the most effective treatment protocols.

Addiction is a powerful, destructive force that can often only be conquered with professionals who specialize in dual diagnosis. When a person has a dual diagnosis, and abusing drugs and or alcohol, they inevitably are self-medicating the psychological condition to help ease their psychological distress. By self medicating, the person is self-soothing their condition(s) with drugs and or alcohol to relieve their discomfort.

Addictions can fracture relationships, create financial hardship and adversely affect the health of the addict. "The essence of addiction is the compulsive drug seeking and using in spite of the negative, moral, physical and social consequences," says Dr. Akikur Mohammad. "Medical research shows that addiction is tied to changes in brain structure and function, and that it is essentially a brain disease."

America's Premier Dual Diagnosis Rehab Treatment Program

At Malibu Horizon, our highly trained professional staff treats patients medically, psychosocially, pharmaceutically as well as with individualized therapies.  In this manner, we assist our clients in resolving the underlying issues driving the addiction, alcoholism and dependency.

Long term changes in the brain due to drug and alcohol use can be clearly seen in these brain images. We offer brain imaging (PET scans) for those patients who want to see the difference.

Dual Diagnosis Defined

Dual Diagnosis is when two disorders or illnesses occur in the same person, simultaneously or sequentially, they are called co-morbid. Co-morbidity also implies interactions between the illnesses that affect the course and prognosis of both.

The overlap of brain areas involved in both drug use disorders and other mental illnesses suggests that brain changes stemming from one may affect the other. For example, drug abuse that precedes the first symptoms of a mental illness may produce changes in brain structure and function that kindle an underlying propensity to develop that mental illness. If the mental disorder develops first, associated changes in brain activity may increase the vulnerability to abusing substances by enhancing their positive effects, reducing awareness of their negative effects, or alleviating the unpleasant effects associated with the mental disorder or the medication used to treat it.

Depression, Anxiety, Panic PTSD or Bi-Polar Disorders

Addiction changes the brain in fundamental ways, disturbing a person's normal hierarchy of needs and desires and substituting new priorities connected with procuring and using the drug. The resulting compulsive behaviors that override the ability to control impulses despite the consequences are similar to hallmarks of other mental illnesses.

Addiction changes the brain, disturbing the normal hierarchy of needs and desires

In fact, the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM), the definitive resource of diagnostic criteria for all mental disorders, includes criteria for drug use disorders, distinguishing between two types: drug abuse and drug dependence. Drug dependence is synonymous with addiction. By comparison, the criteria for drug abuse hinge on the harmful consequences of repeated use but do not include the compulsive use, tolerance (i.e., needing higher doses to achieve the same effect), or withdrawal (i.e., symptoms that occur when use is stopped) that can be signs of addiction.

Why Does Dual Diagnosis Occur?

The high prevalence of dual diagnosis between drug use disorders and other mental illnesses does not mean that one caused the other, even if it appeared first. In fact, establishing causality or directionality is difficult for several reasons. Some symptoms of a mental disorder may not be recognized until the illness has substantially progressed, and imperfect recollections of when drug use/abuse started can also present timing issues. Still, three scenarios deserve consideration:

1.Drugs of abuse can cause abusers to experience one or more symptoms of another mental illness. The increased risk of psychosis in some marijuana abusers has been offered as evidence for this possibility.

2.Mental illnesses can lead to drug abuse. Individuals with overt, mild, or even sub clinical mental disorders may abuse drugs as a form of self-medication. For example, the use of tobacco products by patients with schizophrenia is believed to lessen the symptoms of the disease and improve cognition.

3. Both drug use disorders and other mental illnesses are caused by overlapping factors such as underlying brain deficits, genetic vulnerabilities, and/or early exposure to stress or trauma.

All three scenarios probably contribute, in varying degrees, to how and whether specific dual diagnosis manifest themselves

High Prevalence of Drug Abuse and Dependence Among Individuals With Mood and Anxiety Disorders

High Prevalence of Mental Disorders Among Patients With Drug Use Disorders

Higher Prevalence Smoking Among Patients With Mental Disorders

Because mood disorders increase vulnerability to drug abuse and addiction, the diagnosis and treatment of the mood disorder can reduce the risk of subsequent drug use. Because the inverse may also be true, the diagnosis and treatment of drug use disorders may reduce the risk of developing other mental illnesses and, if they do occur, lessen their severity or make them more amenable to effective treatment. Finally, because more than 40 percent of the cigarettes smoked in this country are smoked by individuals with a psychiatric disorder, such as major depressive disorder; alcoholism; post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD); schizophrenia; or bipolar disorder, smoking by patients with mental illness contributes greatly to their increased morbidity and mortality.

Childhood ADHD and Later Drug Alcohol Problems - Dual Diagnosis

Numerous studies have documented an increased risk for drug use disorders in youth with untreated ADHD, although some suggest that only a subset of these individuals are vulnerable: those with co morbid conduct disorders. Given this linkage, it is important to determine whether effective treatment of ADHD could prevent subsequent drug abuse and associated behavioral problems. Treatment of childhood ADHD with stimulant medications such as methylphenidate or amphetamine reduces the impulsive behavior, fidgeting, and inability to concentrate that characterize ADHD. However, some physicians and parents have expressed concern that treating childhood ADHD with stimulants might increase a child's vulnerability to drug abuse later in life. Recent reviews of long-term studies of children with ADHD who received stimulant therapy found no evidence for this increase. However, most of these studies have methodological limitations, including small sample sizes and nonrandomized study designs, indicating that more research is needed, particularly in adolescents.

How Common is Dual Diagnosis?

Many people who regularly abuse drugs are also diagnosed with mental disorders and vice versa. The high prevalence of this co morbidity has been documented in multiple national population surveys since the 1980s. Data show that persons diagnosed with mood or anxiety disorders were about twice as likely to suffer also from a drug use disorder (abuse or dependence) compared with respondents in general. The same was true for those diagnosed with an antisocial syndrome, such as antisocial personality or conduct disorder. Similarly, persons diagnosed with drug disorders were roughly twice as likely to suffer also from mood and anxiety disorders.

Gender is also a factor in the specific patterns of observed co morbidities. For example, the overall rates of abuse and dependence for most drugs tend to be higher among males than females, and males are more likely to suffer also from antisocial personality disorder. In contrast, women have higher rates of amphetamine dependence and higher rates of mood and anxiety disorders.

A particularly active area of co morbidity research involves the search for genes that might predispose individuals to develop both addiction and other mental illnesses, or to have a greater risk of a second disorder occurring after the first appears. It is estimated that 40-60 percent of an individual's vulnerability to addiction is attributable to genetics; most of this vulnerability arises from complex interactions among multiple genes and from genetic interactions with environmental influences. In some instances, a gene product may act directly, as when a protein influences how a person responds to a drug (e.g., whether the drug experience is pleasurable or not) or how long a drug remains in the body. But genes can also act indirectly by altering how an individual responds to stress or by increasing the likelihood of risk-taking and novelty-seeking behaviors, which could influence the development of both drug use disorders and other mental illnesses. Several regions of the human genome have been linked to increased risk of both, including associations with greater vulnerability to adolescent drug dependence and conduct disorders.
The rate of smoking in patients with schizophrenia has ranged as high as 90 percent.
Some areas of the brain are affected by both drug use disorders and other mental illnesses. For example, the circuits in the brain that use the neurotransmitter dopamine a chemical that carries messages from one neuron to another are typically affected by addictive substances and may also be involved in depression, schizophrenia, and other psychiatric disorders.
Indeed, some antidepressants and essentially all anti psychotic medications target the regulation of dopamine in this system directly, whereas others may have indirect effects. Importantly, dopamine pathways have also been implicated in the way in which stress can increase vulnerability to drug addiction. Stress is also a known risk factor for a range of mental disorders and therefore provides one likely common neurobiological link between the disease processes of addiction and those of other mental disorders.

 

 

Non Liability for Professional Services

All doctors of medicine furnishings services to the client at Malibu Horizon are independent contractors and are not employee or agents. Malibu Horizon does not employ any type of doctors, all patients and doctors have individual treatment agreements resolving the underlying issues driving the addiction, alcoholism and dependency.

 

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