An example of a dual diagnosis would be if a patient was found to be taking drugs to ward off or get through panic attacks, or using a “street” drug, such as cocaine, heroin, or meth, to treat depression. Hey, drug addiction in itself is bad enough. Add mental illness or a chemical imbalance to the mix, and it just multiplies the problem.

For this reason, there are drug rehab centers that deal specifically with “dual diagnosis” patients. And, this does necessarily mean that an alcoholic who is bipolar will be in the same center as the person who suffers panic attacks and is…shall we say “self-medicating”.

Rather, the alcoholic will be in one dedicated facility; the patient with panic attack disorder will be in another, completely separate facility. Each facility will deal with one, and ONLY one, particular problem.

Also, and sort of along the same lines, some drug rehab centers have decided that they will also operate as “stand-alone” facilities, only these places will deal with certain specific members of the population. In other words, there may be a center that accepts those who are gay or lesbian, and are seeking treatment, while another center admits ONLY adolescents—no children, no adults, just teenagers.

All of these sound like excellent ways of approach drug and alcohol rehabilitation. Hey, if it works, if it gets people off drugs, that’s what is important.

Since dual diagnosis became prevalent in the early 1980’s, researchers have found three basic and consistent findings. First, co-occurrence is fairly common since about 50% of individuals with severe mental disorders are affected by substance abuse and addiction treatment. Second, dual diagnosis is associated with a variety of negative outcomes such as higher rates of relapse, hospitalization, violence, incarceration, homelessness and serious medical problems such as HIV and hepatitis. Third, it is clear that our mental health system and substance abuse treatment system deliver fragmented and ineffective care for those individuals suffering from dual diagnosis. Since the 1980’s, a great deal of progress has been made in combining both care systems and effectively integrating these services to provide a more developed, refined and effective treatment method.

Drug rehab treatments or interventions combine mental health and substance abuse interventions at the level of the clinical interaction. This integrated treatment requires that the same professionals work in one setting and provide appropriate mental health and substance abuse treatment in a coordinated fashion. Integration involves combining appropriate treatments for both disorders while modifying traditional interventions. The goal of dual diagnosis intervention is recovery from not one, but two serious illnesses.

Critical components for dual diagnosis treatment include:

1. Staged interventions. Forming a trusting relationship with the individual, helping the engaged client develop motivation to become recovery-oriented, helping the motivated individual acquire skills and supports for controlling their illness and pursuing goals and helping the client in stable remission develop and use strategies for maintaining their recovery.
2. Assertive outreach. Effective treatment programs for dual diagnosis patients engage clients and members of their support systems by providing assertive outreach, usually through a combination of intensive case management and meetings in the client’s residence.
3. Motivational interventions. Effective dual diagnosis programs incorporate motivational interventions that are designed to help clients become ready for more definitive interventions aimed at illness self-management. Motivational interventions help the individual identify his or her own goals and recognize that by not managing their illness, they are negatively impacting their goals.
4. Counseling. By using group, individual and family counseling, effective dual diagnosis rehabilitation programs promote cognitive and behavioral skills.
5. Social support interventions. These types of interventions focus on strengthening the social environment to help the individual modify their behavior and includes social networks and family interventions.
6. Long-term perspective. Programs must take a long-term, community-based perspective for continuum of care to prevent relapse.
7. Comprehensiveness. Combined mental health and substance abuse treatment must be all encompassing.
8. Cultural sensitivity and competence. Programs must be tailored to suit the specific culture.

Although it is clear that both the mental health system and the substance abuse treatment system are very effective methods of treatment, the two methods must be uniformly combined into one effective program for those patients suffering from dual diagnosis. Both the substance abuse issue and the mental health issue must be addressed in treatment concurrently. Failure to treat both issues effectively would result in certain relapse.

• Severe/major mental illness and a substance disorder(s)
• Substance disorder(s) and a personality disorder(s)
• Substance disorder(s), personality disorder(s) and substance induced acute symptoms that may require psychiatric care, i.e. hallucinations, depression and other symptoms resulting from substance abuse or withdrawal
• Substance abuse, mental illness and organic syndromes in various combinations.
• How can you treat Dual Diagnosis?
• Successful dual diagnosis treatment includes the treatment of the addiction and treatment for the mental condition. Treating one or the other will not result in a long-lasting recovery. Too often the addiction and the mental condition will contribute to one another.
• Drug Rehab and Dual Diagnosis

In your studies on addiction and abuse, or at your treatment center, you might have stumbled upon the idea of dual diagnosis. This is something that has stricken many people, and it is often something that goes undiagnosed for a long time, which may contribute to a greater surge in addictions.

Dual diagnosis means that a person has two different illnesses. They have a mental health or behavioral condition, and they also have an drug addiction, alcoholism, or a substance abuse problem. When a person has dual diagnosis, both of these factors are contributing to their standard of living and the amount of time that they spend below the standard, or where they should be living.

Dual diagnosis is going to take a toll on much more than just the parts of a person’s life that are affected by drug and alcohol abuse. Mental health issues are going to prevent a person from holding down a job or relationship that they might be able to hold down if their only problem was the addiction. Mental health issues add so much to addictions, and in turn, addictions add so much to mental health issues. It is a vicious cycle, made even worse when someone introduces the idea of trying to hold down a life.

Dual diagnosis is something that many people have. Studies have shown that almost half of the people who have an addiction will also have a mental health issue as well. Unfortunately, many times the mental health issue does not get addressed during drug rehabilitation treatment.

When an addiction treatment center only deals with addiction, and fails to deal with the actual mental health issues, the mental health problems are going to lead right back to addiction after the person has been in recovery. This happens more often than we are aware of, and it could be one of the biggest contributors to chronic relapse.

When it comes right down to it, mental health and addiction issues should be treated together. A person cannot get rid of one of these problems without hurting the other, unless they are being treated for both. If a person with depression gets treatment for alcoholism but not for the depression, the depression will get worse without the alcohol, and will probably lead them right back to drinking. If a person with both of these gets treatment for the depression but does not stop drinking, there is going to be no way that they are actually going to get any better. The only successful treatment for dual diagnosis is drug treatment that incorporates both of the problems into one.

If you have gone through addiction treatment and have gone back to using, you might have a mental health condition that is preventing you from getting any better. Perhaps there is depression, or other mental health issues that are keeping you from staying on the path to recovery. Ask your doctor about dual diagnosis, and have him or her decide if this is something that you should be treated for as well. Many times after a person has relapsed, they have realized that they also have a mental health issue. Once they have been treated for dual diagnosis, they are much more likely to be able to make a full recovery and stay on the correct path for the rest of their lives without a higher chance of relapse. If you think that this might be something you are dealing with, talk to your doctor today. You can get into a drug rehab or an alcohol rehab treatment program that will treat both your addiction and your mental health problems at the same time and get better much faster.