Adolescent Substance Abuse and Mental Illness

Psychiatric Disorders There is a high correlation between youth with substance abuse problems and youth with mental illness. Often, the substance abuse is a means of self-medicating. There are a lot of potential underlying factors for this high comorbidity, but it is important to recognize that the comorbidity exists, and it has implications for treatment. Proper psychiatric care is often required in concert with addiction treatment interventions, in order to ensure that youth facing these issues are able to overcome their addictions.

Psychiatric Disorders There are a number of psychiatric disorders that can occur with substance abuse during adolescence. For example, among those with an alcohol use disorder, 37% had comorbidity with a mental disorder. The odds are particularly high for multiple addictive disorders, such as drug use disorders. Some of the most common comorbidities with substance abuse disorders are antisocial personality disorder, schizophrenia and bipolar disorders (Regier et al., 1990).

In adolescents specifically, other disorders common are affective disorders, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, conduct disorder and anxiety disorder, along with antisocial personality disorder (Bukstein et al., 1989). Frequency There is high comorbidity between drug use disorders and these psychiatric disorders. One of the reasons for this is statistical. Diagnosis of a mental disorder usually occurs "when symptoms have progressed to a specific level," but subclinical symptoms are typically what prompts the drug use. Thus, the drug use presents first, and only when that is investigated do the mental disorders become apparent.

This skews the sample size, such that the two are clearly linked in a large number of cases (NIH, 2016). The other factor is that mental illness is a causal factor in substance abuse. Drugs serve as a form of self-medication. There are also corollary factors as well, such as underlying brain deficits, genetic vulnerabilities and early exposure to stress or trauma. These factors have explanatory power for which the comorbidity between addiction and mental illness is so high (NIH.gov, 2016).

There is involvement of similar brain regions for mental illness and substance abuse, highlighting the potential for a relationship between these things. Combined Impact Mental illness and substance abuse create enough problems for adolescents on their own, but can be devastating when combined. First, there is a necessity for mental health professionals to treat both together. When these are treated independently, there is greater risk that the treatment will not be effective, so that is one of the clinical implications of this high comorbidity.

One of the issues with the treatment, however, is that the treatment methods for addictive substances have not been widely studied in comorbid populations, and in particular not with adolescents. This has significant treatment implications. Clinicians can treat the addiction, but that treatment may not be as effective when there is comorbidity with other mental illness. There is much to be learned with respect to effective methods to treat patients with various combinations of comorbidities (NIH, 2011). Thus, this comorbidity represents a significant challenge for treatment.

Adolescents face a number of negative outcomes if they have both mental illness and substance abuse problems. They are more likely to fail to finish their education, more likely to suffer abuse, more likely to run away, and there are negative morbidity and mortality outcomes for these very high risk youth. Even those who enter treatment face substantial challenges in building back their lives, but many go without treatment for too long, and they miss out on this key development time in their lives.

This is why it is imperative that adolescents with these issues are identified and receive the help that they need. Diagnosis Diagnosis is just the first step to getting the help that they need. Greenbaum (1991) highlights the strong link between mental health and drug addiction. When diagnosis is made, treatment can begin. There are still going to be challenges because the addiction and mental illness both need to be treated at the same time.

Outcomes are better for adolescents who are able to enter treatment than for those who are not, however, highlighting the importance of getting a proper diagnosis. One of the important considerations is that the mental illness is often what precipitates the substance abuse, so an adolescent receiving help for substance abuse should be investigated for underlying mental illness, in order to improve the changes of helping overcome the addiction by dealing with the underlying factors.

Conclusions One of the important conclusions is that there is often a strong corollary relationship between mental illness and substance abuse. To.