ABSTRACT
Diagnosing comorbid psychiatric disorders in methadone maintained patients may help to identify subgroups with different outcomes and needs for treatment. In this study, 75 methadone maintenance clinic patients in treatment longer than 30 days were assessed with the Addiction Severity Index, Global Assessment Scale and Mini-Mental Status Exam, and were interviewed for DSM-III-R psychiatric diagnosis using the computerized Diagnostic Interview Schedule. Psychiatric diagnoses were prevalent in the sample with depression, phobic disorders, antisocial personality and generalized anxiety the most common. Both number of DSM-III-R diagnoses and severity of psychopathology were correlated with outcome measures such as concurrent drug abuse, family-social problems and employment status.
Subject(s)
Heroin Dependence/epidemiology , Mental Disorders/epidemiology , Methadone/therapeutic use , Adolescent , Adult , Combined Modality Therapy , Comorbidity , Diagnosis, Dual (Psychiatry) , Female , Heroin Dependence/diagnosis , Heroin Dependence/rehabilitation , Humans , Male , Mental Disorders/diagnosis , Mental Disorders/rehabilitation , New York City/epidemiology , Psychiatric Status Rating ScalesABSTRACT
The combined addictive diseases of alcoholism and narcotics addiction are as common in the adolescent as in the adult population and have profound effects on health and outcome. Therefore proper clinical management of these patients requires the best available treatment of both the narcotic addiction and the best available treatment of the alcohol abuse problem. Alcoholism per se does not have negative effect on MMTP retention. Although methadone maintenance has been shown to be effective in the treatment of narcotics addiction in adolescents as well as in adults, methods and resources for the management of alcohol abuse within the modality are meager, parochial, and poorly defined. Future efforts must be directed towards developing more effective models for the treatment of the combined addictions.
