Correlation between Mental Health Disorders and Substance Use Disorders

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Correlation between Mental Health Disorders and Substance Use Disorder

INTRODUCTION

The current classification system in psychiatry does not exclude the diagnosis of another disorder, while diagnosing a certain disorder. Mental disorders are diagnosed in accordance with the operationalized diagnostic benchmarks, which do not exclude the diagnosis of another disorder during the diagnosis of a certain disorder (American Psychiatric Association, 1994; World Health Organization, 1993). Therefore, this leads to the diagnosing of more than one mental disorder in some cases, and such co-occurrence of disorders is examined in this thesis. Specifically, the thesis will define the importance for treatment and prevention of the co-occurrence of disorders, discuss various multi-cultural issues and case studies, and discuss the effective treatment of someone with dual diagnosis. Additionally, the thesis will also look into the prior research conducted on the prevalence rates and effective therapies on the issue of co-occurrence of mental disorders and substance-use disorders.

THESIS STATEMENT

There is a strong correlation between mental health disorders and substance use disorders, due to which, clinicians can provide more accurate assessments, diagnoses and implement more effective treatment interventions.

DISCUSSION

Within the past few decades, the co-occurrence of mental disorders and substance use disorders has gained increasing prominence in forensic psychology (Wittchen, 1996). The co-occurrence or overlapping of two or more psychiatric disorders is also known as 'comorbidity'. The co-occurrence of disorders has lately emerged as a major public health, clinical and research issue over the past decades. The co-occurrence of disorders has emerged, over the past few decades, due to changes in psychiatric terminology. The changes in terminology occurred due to greater focus on explaining even minor health disorders that may be present in an individual. At present, mental health disorders are categorized as patterns of thought or behavior associated with adverse events, significant disability, and loss of individual freedom or distress. These patterns arise due to dysfunctions within an individual (Neugebauer, 1999). Therefore, these issues incorporate a wide range of behaviors that include anxiety, substance use, mood disturbances, and disturbance in perception and thought.

Importance for Treatment and Prevention

People possessing substance use disorders are more likely to have other mental health disorders, and this needs to be considered before planning the treatment and assessment of the person. The co-occurrence of disorders is mainly important, if the co-occurring disorders tend to have a differential clinical outcome (Rouillon, 1996). In such cases, appropriate attention to the co-occurring disorders can produce positive treatment results. For instance, the treatment of nicotine dependence may be considered as effective, if at the same time, an effective treatment for depression is also introduced (Lynskey, 1998). Likewise, the prevention programs for co-occurring disorders are also created in isolation, traditionally. The prevention programs for substance use and other mental disorders must not be created separately from each other. Instead, the prevention programs must be created in an integrated manner in order to ensure effective treatment of co-occurring disorders. If multiple disorders, occurring simultaneously, possess same risk factors, then the preventive measurements ...