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Wk5AssgnP.King.docxRunning head: comorbidity and its connection to substance use, treatment, and relapse 1
comorbidity and its connection to substance use, treatment, and relapse 5
Comorbidity and Its Connection to Substance Use, Treatment, and Relapse
Paula King
Walden University
Capstone
Dr. Jane Lyons
June 30, 2019
Comorbidity can be described as two or more disorders occurring in the same individual. These illnesses can either occur at the same instance or one after the other (Valderas, Jose M, et al. 2010). Comorbidity also describes interactions between the infections that can worsen both courses. Comorbidity has a strong connection with substance abuse, treatment, as well as relapse. Evidence has it that most individuals who have a substance use disorder develop other mental illnesses as well, just as those patients who are diagnosed with mental infections are usually diagnosed with a substance disorder. Limited research done on comorbidity in children indicates that teens with substance abuse disorder typically have a high rate of co-occurring mental illnesses such as depression and anxiety. Catala-Lopez, Alonso-Arroyo, Hutton, Tabares-Seisdedos & Aleixandre-Benavent (2018) advises that medical physicians have to find an effective way to care for patients with addictions mental disorders. To achieve this, he mentions that they need to provide the right medication to treat nicotine, opioid, as well as alcohol addiction. They also need to deliver medications to alleviate mental disorders. Presently, therapies that are effective in treating comorbid conditions include assertive community treatment, cognitive behavioral therapy, as well as dialectical therapy.
Browne & Keeley (2018) mention that although substance use disorders generally occur with other mental illnesses; however, this does not imply that one caused the other. Studies Show that genetics may attribute to the risk of developing both substance use disorders and mental diseases. For instance, some individuals have particular genes that make them at heightened risk of mental illness when they become adults if they frequently used marijuana in their early life stages. A gene can also influence a person’s response to a substance, whether it makes him feel good when using or not. Other factors, such as stress can cause genetic changes that may contribute to the development of both substance use disorder and mental illnesses (De Graff, Bijl, Beekman, Volleberger & Mattheisen, 2015).
Research has also established that mental illnesses can also impart substance use disorder. For instance, some study suggests that individuals with mental illnesses may use substances like alcohol, marijuana, cocaine, etc. as a form of self-medication (Browne & Keeley, 2018). Although some therapies such as dialectical therapy and cognitive behavioral therapy may help with mental illnesses symptoms, when an individual develops the mental disease, brain changes may reflect the good feelings of using the substance, thus makes the person continue using it. However, substance use can also make symptoms worse. For example, content such as cocaine can aggravate bipolar disorder symptoms and lead to the advancement of the disorder. When a person develops mental illness, the impact changes in the brain may escalate the susceptibility for challenging drug abuse by heightening their positive effects, lowering awareness of their harmful, effects (Pereiro, Pino, Florez, Arrojo, & COPSIAD Group 2013).
Treatment for comorbidity generally entails collaboration between clinicians and medical organization that offer health care. According to Straus, Glasziou, Richardson & Haynes (2018), the first step of treating comorbid disorders is a proper assessment. Clinical assessments are crucial in treating addictions and mental illnesses. Treatments that can be utilized in this instance include BPS, which takes the patient's psychological history, social history into account. Information details from the BPS can direct caregivers towards necessary clinical assessments for specific mental illnesses. The importance of evaluations is that they inform customized patient-centered care. Someone with an addiction to marijuana and also suffers from depression cannot be given the same medication with someone suffering from cocaine addiction and who also suffer from bipolar (Coplan, 2015).
However, Browne & Keeley (2018), inform us that though there are many treatments for mental illnesses proven to lower symptoms and potentially, putting diagnoses into remission, they are barriers to their effective implementation. The first barrier to treatment stems from lack of proper communication, the inability of patients to talk to clinicians the moment they come into the treatment room. When clinicians are not able to communicate effectively to their patients to find out whatever they got into their system, it becomes hard to conduct first aid effectively. In such a situation, what often happens is that the physicians must perform the first aid quickly and screen their blood to determine the exact poison that is causing a problem. Which again is a challenge because today, people become addicted to a multiplicity of drugs and medicines? It requires a dreadful part of an investment to make sense of what number of kinds of medications a patient has been on
Each patient requires a medication plan designed to meet specific need and interest. For instance, two patients with the same diagnosis may respond to therapy differently because of their unique experiences with trauma. Therefore it is significant to acknowledge the necessity that comorbid disorder is treated concurrently. Valderas et al. (2010) mention that, “Mental disorders with comorbid addiction are intimately linked.” Most importantly, we should understand that treating both means healing both as opposed to one or the other.
References
Catala-Lopez F, Alonso-Arroyo A, Page MJ, Hutton B, Tabares-Seisdedos R, Aleixandre-Benavent R (2018). Mapping of global scientific research in comorbidity and multi-morbidity: A cross-sectional analysis. PloS ONE 13 (1): e0189091 doi:101371/journal.pone.0189091
Coplan, J. D. (2015). “Treating comorbid anxiety and depression: Psychosocial and pharmacological approaches.” World Journal of Psychiatry, vol. 5, no. 4, p. 366,
De Graff, R., Bijl, M., Beekman, A., Volleberger, C., & Mattheisen, O. (2015). “Pathways to the transition of poor mood, anxiety and substance use disorders into comorbid conditions in a longitudinal population-based study,” Journal of Affective Disorders, vol. 82, no 3, pp. 515-523,
Pereiro, C, Pino C, Florez, G, Arrojo, M, Becona E, COPSIAD Group (2013). Psychiatric Comorbidity in Patients from the Addictive Disorders Assistance Units of Galicia: The COPSIAD Study. PloS ONE 8 (6): E666451 doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0066451
Straus, S. E., Glasziou, P., Richardson, W. S., & Haynes, R. B. (2018). Evidence-Based Medicine E-Book: How to Practice and Teach EBM. Elsevier Health Sciences
Valderas, Jose M et al. (2010) “Defining comorbidity: Implications for understanding health and health services. Journal of Annals of family medicine, 7 (4), 357-363. doi:10.1370/afm.983
