Double-Trouble: Why Dual-Diagnosis Matters in Addiction Treatment

By Tonmoy Sharma M.B.B.S., M.S.c.

Up to 60% of individuals who have an addiction have a dual-diagnosis; mood and anxiety disturbances such as bipolar disorder and depression are particularly common. The reverse is also true — people with mental health conditions are twice as likely to become addicted to drugs and/or alcohol than the general population.

Leading experts and medical associations agree — substance use disorders are brain diseases. Advances in brain imaging and other tools have established beyond a doubt that people with addictions to drugs and/or alcohol manifest changes in the structure, chemicals and functioning of our master organ. These effects spur urges, impulses, compulsions and other behaviors that actually compel the addicted brain to crave the very substances that destroy it. Add to this scenario a mental health condition (a dual-diagnosis) and things really get complicated.

There is some debate as to whether mental illnesses are also brain diseases, but research has shown that, like addiction, people with mental health issues exhibit changes in brain function and structure. Whether having a substance use and/or mental issue, in fact, causes brain changes, or extant brain changes cause substance use and/or mental disorders is unclear. Regardless, the interplay…