Substance use disorders and other addictions – Comorbidities

The phenomenon of comorbidity is common in psychiatry – defined as the presence of two or more psychological/psychiatric conditions in one individual.^[1,2,3] Psychiatric comorbidity is common in addiction, with many different psychiatric conditions seen at greater frequen…

The relationships between substance use and substance-use disorders and comorbid mental disorders are complex, and are therefore difficult to examine in studies. Clinically, the two important questions to consider regarding the co-occurrence of two disorders in one patien…

Given the impact that comorbidities can have on substance-use disorder, and vice versa, this analysis attempted to interrogate these interactions by comparing the co-occurrences of independent and addiction-dependent disorder among a population of users of illicit substan…

Results from across the NESARC datasets show consistent results – that comorbidity is common in patients with substance-use disorders.^[2] However, individual relationships between specific comorbidities are complex.^[2] When the data were adjusted for the potentially confo…

A systematic review investigated substance use as a risk factor for developing bipolar disorder.^[6] The review found broad support that many different substances (including cannabis, nicotine, and alcohol) increase the incidence of bipolar disorder.^[6] However – as outlin…

Researchers used data from the Australian National Survey of Mental Health and Wellbeing, a household survey including 8,841 Australians aged 16–85 years old, to study the comorbidities of substance-use disorder and anxiety disorders.^[4] The 12-month prevalence of substan…

The relationship between substance-use disorders and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is complex, i.e., bidirectional and with other mediating interconnected risk factors.^[1,2] However, it is a difficult relationship to study, partly due to the intricacies of study d…

As outlined on the slide, many substances interact with the dopamine system of the brain, as well as with other neurotransmitter systems, dysregulation of which may lead to psychotic symptoms or schizophrenia.^[1] It has been proposed that, if schizophrenia and substance-u…