What Dual Diagnosis Is All About

by Troy Holden

What Dual Diagnosis Is All About

Oftentimes, when we search for drug rehabilitation centers near our place, we would come across a number of them offering support for dual diagnosis. So what is dual diagnosis really about?

One of the dangers of drug addiction as well as alcohol dependence is that, it oftentimes masks a deeper psychiatric problem. Apart from this, the use and abuse of drugs as well as dependence to alcohol can exacerbate a number of psychiatric disorders. It is situations like these that clinicians refer to as “dual diagnosis”.

Dual Diagnosis, in its broadest use, simply means the simultaneous presence of two independent medical disorders. Dual diagnosis does not refer primarily to drug addiction. Some examples of dual diagnosis include MICA or Mentally Ill Chemical Abuse, SAMI or Substance Abuse and Mental Illness, CAMI, Chemical Abuse and Mental Illness, and Mentally Ill Substance Abuse.

In order to come up with a specific treatment plan, addiction treatment centers need to check for the presence of dual diagnosis. This is usually done after detoxification has taken place. During this process, the clinician needs to consider several relationships including whether the abuse is the one causing the psychological disorder, whether the addiction is causing a worsening of the psychiatric condition, or if it is the present psychiatric condition that is pushing someone to be an addict.

Although it might seem as unnecessary, checking for dual diagnosis allows addiction treatment centers to know if the person is actually responding to the treatment plan. Aside from that, it helps the clinicians involved in the treatment program to customize their plan in order to make the addict more receptive. For example, drug addicts suffering from social phobias may resist joining group therapy sessions and might prefer an individualized approach. On the other hand, someone suffering from depression might seem unresponsive to treatment, or someone with a psychosis might seem to blatantly reject the treatment program. In instances like these, having knowledge in dual diagnosis would help the therapist to come up with a different treatment plan.

There are a number of Florida addiction treatment centers that have medical staff trained in checking for a dual diagnosis.