Topic: co-occurring disorders

The increased incidence of depression, anxiety, and other psychiatric symptoms linked to OUD may also help to account for high rates of relapse among patients, post-treatment, versus other substance disorders.

In fact, it’s often difficult to convince the trauma patient to seek treatment, in part because of fear of having to re-experience the event.

A reasonably good rule of thumb for differentiating results of substance addiction from other illnesses: When the substance use stops for an extended period, the symptoms improve dramatically or go away entirely.

Patients with severe substance disorders may experience depression as a result of the cumulative effects of their substance use.

Psychologists say that for many the goal is simply to enter and remain in what’s called ‘the zone’

…progress is the measuring stick. You want your patient to know the joy of a structured, purposeful life.

There’s plenty of evidence that treatment for depression works, and that people with co-occurring disorders can and do get a whole lot better.

In spite of the advances, science still struggles to understand the disease process that underlies most disorders.

In a sense we’re just describing disorders that we only partly understand.

As a general rule, the better the causes of a disease are understood, the more effective the treatments will be.