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11.3: Substance-Related and Addictive Disorders - Comorbidity

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    161479

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    Learning Objectives
    • Describe the comorbidity of substance-related and addictive disorders.

    Substance abuse, in general, has a high comorbidity within itself (meaning abuse of multiple different substances), as well as with other mental health disorders. Researchers believe that substance abuse disorders are often secondary to another mental health disorder, as the substance abuse develops as a means to “self-medicate” the underlying psychological disorder. In fact, several large surveys identified alcohol and drug dependence to be twice as more likely in individuals with anxiety, affective, and psychotic disorders than the general public (Hartz et al., 2014). While it is difficult to identify exact estimates of the relationship between substance abuse and serious mental health disorders, the consensus among researchers is that there is a strong relationship between substance abuse and mood, anxiety, PTSD, and personality disorders (Grant et al., 2016).

    Key Takeaways

    You should have learned the following in this section:

    • Substance abuse has a high comorbidity within itself and with mental health disorders such as mood, anxiety, PTSD, and personality disorders.
    Review Questions
    • With what other conditions are substance-related and addictive disorders highly comorbid?

    This page titled 11.3: Substance-Related and Addictive Disorders - Comorbidity is shared under a CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 license and was authored, remixed, and/or curated by Alexis Bridley and Lee W. Daffin Jr. via source content that was edited to the style and standards of the LibreTexts platform; a detailed edit history is available upon request.