Juan Martinez's Case Study

The case presented is that of, Juan Martinez, a 22 year old Mexican-American male, who has been diagnosed with Alcohol Dependence, Narcotic Dependence, Stimulant Use Disorder-Moderate, and Opioids Use Disorder-Moderate. Client was also referred to a mental health professional to be assessed for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), and was later diagnosed and began treatment by a psychologist. Client, Juan Martinez, has had a history of unsuccessful relationship with friends, and significant others due to his substance abuse, and addictions. The presented client had stable employment and stable income from the United States Army, until he was discharged on a general discharge in December 2015. Client has reported that he was first introduced …show more content…
There is a stigma within the military that turning to medical professionals for assistance makes you a coward, and many are afraid of being discharged due to mental illness from being subjected to events that will play in their minds forever. In Juan’s case, his anger and aggression when drinking began after he returned from his first and only deployment to Afghanistan. The behaviors that Juan is displaying is very common amongst soldiers returning from overseas deployments, according to research done by Buljan, Karlovic, Marusic, and Zoricic (2003). According to Buljan et al. (2003), “Alcohol abuse or addiction is one of the most common codiagnosis of PTSD, and has been reported that 40-80% of the PTSD patients had concomitant alcohol addiction or abuse” (P 199). Another study was preformed within this topic, compared Non-PTSD and PTSD patients when seeking treatment. Within this study, Brown, Stout, and Miller (1999) they explored the difference in sought treatment by non-PTSD and PTSD patients in an inpatient and outpatient setting. Within this research by Brown et al. (1999), “Compared with non-PTSD patients, PTSD patients had a greater number of hospital overnights for addiction treatment. Given no significant between-groups differences on any substance use indexes, PTSD patients apparently overuse costly inpatient addiction services” (p 115). Further research was done by Conybeare, Felker, Holmes, Hunt, Jakupcak, Klevens, Mcfall, and Phelps (2007), and it was discovered that service members returning from overseas deployments had a higher rate of anger and hostility. Within this research, Conybeare et al. suggested, “It was predicted that veterans who screened positive for PTSD would report significantly greater trait anger and hostility, and be more likely to have