Dual Diagnosis and Co-occurring Diseases

Alcoholism and depression are an example of a dual diagnosis. In this case it can happen that the addict may be given treatment for depression alone leaving alcoholism aside in which case, the possibility of recovery is nil since the issues are co-occurring and co-dependent on each other. A conventional treatment would address either of these issues at a time. So, a person would end up getting treatment a single issue at a time which doesn’t result in efficient recovery. Relapse is common among such people whose co-occurring disease hasn’t been diagnosed and only a single issue is addressed during the treatment.

It is common knowledge that fifty percent of people with severe mental illnesses are major substance abusers and are prone to serious physical ailments such as cancer and heart disease. Now the doubts as to whether this is just a matter of happenstance or a genetic lottery lead to answers that are quite surprising. Pinpointing the reasons for chronic illnesses could be quite tricky. For example, there have been smokers who never got a lung cancer while some persons who had lung cancer never smoked. Situations like this do not allow us to allow at a particular analysis though in most of the cases, studies proved that smoking and lung cancer are inter related.

Though it is a common notion that a few chronic ailments stem from substance abuse, the fact is that some people are actually led to addiction drugs and alcohol due to mental illnesses. Most substance abusers are found to have underlying severe mental conditions. For example, some cancer patients who undergo chemotherapy grow dependent on marijuana or opioid for managing pain. Sometimes it is the stress of coping with the pain caused by chronic illnesses that gravitates the addicts towards substance

Therefore, it is very important to approach a properly equipped rehabilitation centre while opting for treatment. Properly equipped rehab centres comprise of staff who possess the expertise to identify accurately the root cause to a certain illness and design customised treatment programs aiming at the efficient recovery of addicts.