Mental Disorders: Dual Diagnosis

Improved Essays
Dual Diagnosis Akron
A dual diagnosis is the manifestation of two mental diseases in an individual. A dual diagnosis is seen in drug treatment when a patient has a diagnosed psychological disorder in addition to their addiction. This claim of dual diagnosis is prefaced by the fact that addiction is a mental disease.
Examples of mental disease commonly seen in combination with addiction in dual diagnosis scenarios:
• Bi-polar disorder and alcoholism: Alcohol impacts the transfer of endorphins in the brain which is the same area of the brain that regulates mood. The manic episodes observed in patients with bi-polar disorder creates susceptibility to alcoholism.

• Panic disorder and benzodiazepines: Benzodiazepine drugs such as Xanax, Klonopin,
…show more content…
Individuals predisposed genetically to acquiring a mental disease, or have an underlying mental disease, are vulnerable to having that condition become active when suffering from addiction.
The second element that may be a causal factor in dual disorders is that often addition and other types of mental illness involve the same regions of the brain, and as a result, spur the onset of one another.
The third element likely to be involved with mental disease prompting addiction is that mentally ill patients are known to sometimes attempt to self-medicate to relieve symptoms of their disease. Many patients complain that prescribed psychoactive drugs have side effects which deter patients from continuing use. Patients then may turn to other drugs to mitigate their symptoms.
The fourth element with regard to mental disease succumbing to addiction is due to patients with organic mental illness and, or psychological disorder trying to mask the disease and its symptoms by attempting to regulate their behavior and emotions through the use of
…show more content…
Evidence-based behavioral programs help patients develop changes in perception, attitude, and self-awareness. Relapse prevention education is a specific compliment to the curriculum. Psychological counseling, or psychotherapy, is essential in attending to each disorder both separately and together. This is a complicated area of therapy as modes of delivery vary with the type of disorder addressed. Psychopharmacology is utilized in a few different ways in dual diagnosis treatment. One use of psychopharmacology is prescribing psychiatric medications that are non-addictive to patients that are necessary to treat the mental disease. The second use of pharmaceutical drugs is in the administration of medications to accomplish medical detox, medicated detox, and, or manage withdrawal symptoms during inpatient

Related Documents

  • Improved Essays

    In the process of obtaining healthy goals that surpass abstinence the client must develop a plan that incorporates an educational approach to relapse. Not every client is a carbon copy of another and there for must be approached with a degree of honest self-assessment in order to identify contextual differences that may affect the overall success of the client. Relapse prevention begins with the process of treatment as it is structured, the contextual changes presented in social structures, and the models used in relapse prevention. Proper planning begins the process of change necessary for recovery, and addresses the expected deterioration of change many will experience.…

    • 1160 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Psychopharmacology is the logical investigation of the impacts drugs have on mind-set, sensation, consideration and conduct. The connection amongst medications and wrongdoing has a long history and is a pillar of fiction, broadly recorded in media reports and the subject of considerable logical examination. Medications are not generally illicit and their purchase and use does not generally prompt to wrongdoing. However, medications and wrongdoing are identified with each other in no less than three ways. To begin with, the prompt impact of medications on the psyche and body may make mental or physical states that by one means or another encourage animosity or robbery.…

    • 921 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Lydia Chakalos Professor J. Hughes English 120 16 October 2016 Rough Draft of Pro/ Con Essay The topic, addiction, is very stigmatized. In the article, “Addiction Is Not A Disease” By Gene M. Heyman, he takes the opposing side of Michael Craig Miller’s, “Addiction Is A Brain Disease”.…

    • 1167 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The disease model is based on a predictable process that are fused into three constructs, i.e. organ, defect, and symptoms which defines addiction as a disease (Pleasure Unwoven, 2016). Likewise, Brooks & McHenry (2009) describes a disease as a predictable array of signs of illness or problems, i.e. loss of control increase in substance tolerance, and premature death (if untreated) associated with addiction. The disease model offers clinicians a logical understanding of the affect substances has on the brain that will eventually hijack the brain’s normal sequence of decision notification, i.e. dopamine craving pleasure through substance use and glutamate gives it permission to use substances despite consequences. The psychological rewiring…

    • 1174 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    A lot of people who become physically and mentally dependent on drugs commit statutory, inchoate, property or even personal crimes in order to obtain drugs. The article “Lindsay Lohan Biography” states, “On May 26, 2007, Lohan was arrested after crashing her Mercedes-Benz into a tree in Beverly Hills. She was arrested again July 24 in Santa Monica after she allegedly engaged in a car chase with the mother of her former personal assistant. In both cases, Lohan was found in possession of small amounts of cocaine.” In other words, this article is expressing how drug abusers commit more crimes than just the standard possession and sale of drugs.…

    • 1265 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Dsm-Iv Criteria

    • 425 Words
    • 2 Pages

    According to the article titled “Perceived Discrimination and DSM-IV–Based Alcohol and Illicit Drug Use Disorders” by Haslyn Hunte and Adam Barry, three criteria has been established as must be present to identify substance dependence according to the DSS-IV criteria. First, is tolerance. For example, tolerance is described as a need for increased amounts of a substance to achieve intoxication or the desired effect. If a drug is continually used at the same dose, then, there is a diminished effect, which requires an increased quantity to achieve the desired effect (Hunte & Barry, 2012). The second pattern of substance abuse is withdrawal.…

    • 425 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Insanity Of Addiction

    • 1122 Words
    • 5 Pages

    There are few greater medical mysteries than why addicts are so often resistant to recovery, especially when reaping the negative attributes of addiction, such as physical health problems, mental health problems, and legal problems. If a physician tells someone he or she has a life-threatening illness that can be treated effectively, most everyone would eagerly pursue treatment. Not the addict. The reasons addicts give for not accepting treatment are complex and not fully understood. Here are a few of the more prominent reasons:…

    • 1122 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Analysis Of Blue Lens

    • 1216 Words
    • 5 Pages

    These activities or consumptions may be pleasurable, but the continuous use or action eventually interferes with the activities of daily living, and with the responsibilities of the individual, such as relationships, academic or professional life, or health. The individual who suffers from an addiction may not be aware of the compulsive and addictive behavior, and how it is causing problems to him and others. While the term addiction usually refers to physical addiction, that is, the biological state in which the body becomes accustomed to the presence of a substance, there are also addictions which can be psychological in nature. An individual is said to have developed tolerance to a substance in those cases of physical additions where the body adapts to the substance to a point it no longer has the same effect it originally had. Nonetheless, most of the time addictive behavior has no relation to a physical tolerance, but rather a psychological source.…

    • 1216 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Psychology is the study of human behavior and what influences the behavior (Miller 2010). Mental disorders, mood swings, cognitive issues are considered to be the main psychological causes of addiction. Most of the addicts are usually driven to addiction by either stress or pressure from other people. The use of drugs usually cause hallucinations and makes one to forget the problems they are facing. According to Freud, the psychological theory of addiction is made up the id, superego and ego (Miller 2010).…

    • 833 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Addiction is commonly used as an equivalent for dependence which, according to John Jung, is “the state in which the user no longer seems to be able to control his or her usage… a strong physiological or psychological need to use alcohol or drugs” (2001, p. 40). According to Dr. Marco Diana, a disease or pathology is “A derailment from normal functioning of a system/organ/cell (physiology), and ultimately of the whole organism” (2013, p. 1). From my limited understanding of neurobiology, psychology, and behavior, I have come to the conclusion that addiction, whether to alcohol or other drugs does not meet the requirements of a disease. I will examine some arguments from both sides to illustrate the complexity of the issue, and why I have come to this conclusion.…

    • 909 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    A persons mental health may vary through the course of their lifetime, and it can be influenced by external factors, the main one being the use of drugs. Drugs such as cannabis, alcohol, heroin and ecstasy have the ability to affect a person’s well-being because they are psychoactive drugs. These drugs interfere with the chemicals in the brain, this then affects the messages those chemicals are trying to send and as a result of the changes to the brain a person’s mood and behaviour will be altered. Psychoactive drugs can cause any number of temporary mental health problems whilst they are being consumed and as they start to clear from the body, a person may suffer from a temporary unstable mental condition as a result of anxiety, mood swings, depression, and sleeping problems. Drug induced anxiety disorder is when a person will have periods of very severe anxiety; heart rate will increase, with trembling, sweats and a fear of losing control.…

    • 556 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    The Bio/psycho/Social Interaction of Addiction Addiction involves the all aspects of one’s life. Areas such a biological, psychological and social environment play a major role in determining the likelihood of an individual becoming an addict. Though bio, psycho, and social aspects weigh heavily in on addiction, an addict spiritual anchor, suffering, and pain have a place in the breaking of man away from God. The human spirit goes through many up and downs as one try to fill a void within their life. Addict seek pleasure within that mind as a reward through the use of SUDs.…

    • 1849 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    A common result of a person feeling like they have to change something about their life is turning to drugs. This is because drugs can give the person a sensation of escape from reality, but it is really only a temporary feeling. The addiction of escape can drive someone to continuously abuse drugs in order to make them feel in control of the thing they originally wanted to change. Likewise, when someone has a mental illness the symptoms may drive them to self medicate in order to soothe their imperfections. Studies have shown that there is a connection between substance abuse and mental illness.…

    • 1217 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The topic of my essay is drug addiction in the United States and how it is a disease. I will provide information from my research to support my argument of why it is a disease and not a choice. There were studies that had shown that the brain of an addict is affected when they use their drug of choice by way of brain scans. Addiction is a disease which if not treated properly can spiral into something far worse. Many people begin with a mental illness such as depression.…

    • 865 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Drug Users Should Go To Treatment Drug addiction is an illness causing extreme drug craving, drug seeking and use. Despite all the consequences it still continues. Drug addiction begins with the single act of taking drugs, and over time the ability to choose not to do so becomes harder and harder. Taking drugs and seeking the high becomes a compulsion. The behavior results from prolonged drug exposure on the brain and how it functions.…

    • 831 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays