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Connecting Mental Illness and Substance Use

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Connecting Mental Illness and Substance Use

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"By far the most common issue connecting mental illness and substance abuse is the intention of patients to medicate the mental health symptoms that they find disruptive or uncomfortable by using alcohol and drugs."

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The National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) reports that there is a "definite connection between mental illness and the use of addictive substances" and that mental health disorder patients are responsible for the consumption of:

38 percent of alcohol

44 percent of cocaine

40 percent of cigarettes

NBER also reports that people who have been diagnosed with a mental health disorder at some point in their lives are responsible for the consumption of:

69 percent of alcohol

84 percent of cocaine

68 percent of cigarettes

There's clearly a connection between substance abuse and mental health disorders, and any number of combinations can develop, each with its own set of unique causes and symptoms, as well as its own appropriate intervention and Dual Diagnosis treatment methods. Which Dual Diagnosis treatment program is the best fit for your loved one?

Self-Medication

By far the most common issue connecting mental illness and substance abuse is the intention of patients to medicate the mental health symptoms that they find disruptive or uncomfortable by using alcohol and drugs.

Some examples include:

The depressed patient who uses marijuana to numb the pain

The patient suffering from social anxiety who drinks to feel more comfortable in social situations

The patient who struggles with panic attacks and takes benzodiazepines like Xanax or Valium in order to calm the symptoms or stop the attacks before they start

The patient with low energy and lack of motivation who takes Adderall, cocaine or crystal meth to increase their drive to get things done

Unfortunately, drugs and alcohol often do little to address the underlying mental health symptoms and ultimately create a whole new batch of problems for the patient while also increasing the severity of the original mental health symptom or symptoms.

Symptoms of One Disorder Trigger the Other

Often, certain drugs can create problems that trigger mental health symptoms. In other cases, substances can create mental health symptoms like paranoia, delusions or depression while the person is under the influence of the drug. When these symptoms last after the drugs wear off, then it can indicate a co-occurring mental health disorder. Some examples include:

Chronic drug and alcohol abuse increases the chances of becoming a victim of assault or rape. These traumatic events can create serious mental health issues like PTSD, depression, eating disorders and more.

Poor decision-making is common under the influence, and patients may break the law or make other choices that cause them to struggle with anxiety in addition to drug addiction.

Unprotected sex or sharing needles with people infected with HIV or hepatitis C can lead to the contraction of the disease, which in turn can mean a struggle with depression and grief over the life-changing consequences.

Depression is a common effect of certain drugs like crystal meth and alcohol as they begin to wear off, and it's a symptom that can deepen into a disorder over time.

The Connection Between Mental Health Treatment and Substance Abuse Treatment

When there is a Dual Diagnosis of both a mental health disorder and a substance abuse issue, it is important that the patient enroll in a treatment program that addresses both problems at the same time. Why? The untreated symptoms of a mental health disorder can cause the patient to be unable to remain clean and sober, and untreated substance abuse issues can make mental health treatment ineffective.

If someone you love is living with a Dual Diagnosis, don't wait to get them the help they need. We're here to assist you. Contact us at the phone number above today.

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The Connection Between Mental Illness and Substance Abuse | Dual Diagnosis

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The National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) reports that there is a "definite connection between mental illness and the use of addictive substances" and that mental health disorder patients are responsible for the consumption of: 38 percent of alcohol 44 percent of cocaine 40 percent of cigarettes NBER also reports

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"Not everyone knows that they have a voice or that they have a choice."

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"Not everyone knows that they have a voice or that they have a choice."

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Mental Disorders & Psych Drugs | Truth Talks

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Psychiatrist Tells All About Side Effects From Mental Health Medications

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This is a film for healthcare providers about the importance of the quality use of medicines for mental illness. Viewers may also be interested in the Mental Health Commission of NSW's paper, 'Medication and mental illness: Perspectives': http://nswmentalhealthcommission.com.au/publications/medication-and-mental-illness-perspectives

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Overprescribing Drugs to Treat Mental Health Problems

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Overprescribing Drugs to Treat Mental Health Problems

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"As many as 57% of people with mental health problems are being treated solely with medications without any form of psychotherapy."

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We hear so much these days about how psychotherapies can help people with mental health problems. But the most recent figures tend to suggest that as many as 57% of people with mental health problems are being treated solely with medications without any form of psychotherapy. And that figure is not going down-it's going up!- up from 44% to 57% between 1998 and 2007. In addition the pediatric use of SSRIs has risen significantly between 1994 and 2000, largely to treat childhood anxiety and depression, and has often occurred without regulatory approval.

So is drug treatment alone an effective way to treat mental health problems? To be sure, there are at least some people who benefit from some drug treatments-especially if they suffer from acute mental health problems that they are likely to recover from relatively quickly.

However, there are numerous good reasons why drugs alone should not be the reflexive treatment of choice for many mental health problems, and I've listed some of these reasons below.

1. In the case of some mental health problems, such as depression, between 50-60% of individuals taking anti-depressant drugs do show improvement, but in many cases, drug treatments are associated with an increased risk of subsequent relapse, and a more effective treatment might be to combine drug treatment with psychological therapies.

2. Treating some common mental health problems with drugs from the outset may effectively "medicalize" them, turning what might have been short-term acute bouts into a longer-term chronic problem. For example, almost everyone knows someone who has been on antidepressants for most of their life. Good business for the pharmaceutical industry, but are those drugs having any significant effect on symptoms over the long-term?

3. Prescribing drugs at the onset of a mental health problem perpetuates a medical model of mental health that may lead many sufferers to believe their recovery is now out of their hands and in the hands of medical experts. This is akin to labeling a mental health problem a "disease", and this can have very significant negative effects on the sufferers ability to self-regulate and self-help. For example, studies show that recent attempts to label obesity as a "disease" actually has a significant negative effect on self-regulation of obesity symptoms.

4. Unfortunately, most current diagnostic criteria for mental health problems are categorical rather than dimensional. That is, the criteria indicate that you will either be diagnosed with a mental illness or you will not (the categorical approach). In contrast, the dimensional approach suggests that mental health symptoms are on a dimension from mild to severe. The current categorical model is perfect for conceiving of mental health problems as "diseases" that have a diagnostic 'cut-off' point, and this conception brings with it all the problems described in point 3. In addition, it is also a perfect scenario in which pharmacological companies can promote the use of drugs to treat mental health problems as "disease categories."

5. Drug companies need to sell drugs to survive, so will have an incentive to invent new disorders to generate a market for new drugs. Very often this may lead to the medicalization of perfectly normal emotional processes, such as bereavement. A good example of the way in which normal psychological processes can be surreptitiously medicalized and made to appear 'abnormal' in order to create markets is in the example of the female menopause.

6. One obvious-but important-downside to many drugs used to treat mental health problems is that they often have significant and distressing side-effects. These side effects can be physical and include fatigue, blurred vision, gastric disorders, headaches, dizziness, sexual dysfunction, risk of cardiac disorders, and weight gain. In many cases (such as antipsychotics) these side effects are significant enough to make up to 50% of those taking medication stop taking them. But apart from medical symptoms, some pharmacological treatments can also increase psychological symptoms such as anxiety, suicidal ideation, and even increase suicide attempts ( especially in young adults).

7. A number of studies have suggested that there may be a significant publication bias in randomized controlled trials (RCT) reported by drug companies. For example, RCTs assessing the effectiveness of drug treatments are significantly more likely to report a positive effect if the study was funded by the pharmaceutical industry than if funds came from non-industry sources. This tends to suggest that drug companies may not publish studies that show that their drugs are ineffective! And this bias is also likely to significantly over-estimate the effectiveness of drugs for mental health problems.

8. While prescribing drugs for mental health problems may have a short-term palliative effect, drugs don't obviously help people to change the way they think or change the socioeconomic environments that might be a root cause of their psychological problems. We know that negative and biased ways of thinking can maintain common mental health problems such as anxiety or depression-these important factors need to be addressed with psychotherapy-not drugs. Helping an individual with mental health problems to rise above difficult socioeconomic conditions is challenging within any kind of treatment approach, but multidisciplinary teams of mental health professionals are increasingly able to help clients with a broader range of psychological and socioeconomic problems.

9. Sadly, many of those health professionals (GPs and family physicians) at the first point of contact with people suffering mental health problems are poorly trained to identify psychological problems in their patients, and have little time available to devote to dealing with these types of problems. This increasingly makes medication prescription an attractive option for doctors whose time-per-patient is limited-an outcome which will have all the potential negative effects of medicalizing the problem into a "disease."

10. At present we don't have any wealthy "multinational psychotherapy conglomerates" to match the financial clout of the pharmaceutical industry, so when it comes to "selling" treatments for mental health problems, drugs will always have the marketing advantage regardless of whether they are more or less effective than psychological therapies. That's an uneven playing field that needs to be addressed.

These are just some of the reasons why we should be wary of the increasing trend of treating psychological problems with medications, and in many cases medications without accompanying psychological help and support. There are certainly attempts being made in many countries to increase access to psychological therapies for those who need them, but while mental health is still viewed primarily as a medical problem within health care systems promoting medical models, little is likely to change rapidly.

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Overprescribing Drugs to Treat Mental Health Problems

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We hear so much these days about how psychotherapies can help people with mental health problems. But the most recent figures tend to suggest that as many as 57% of people with mental health problems are being treated solely with medications without any form of psychotherapy.