The prevalence and management of co-morbid substance misuse and mental illness: results of a screening survey in substance misuse and mental health treatment populations

Weaver, Tim ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3437-3556, Hickman, Matthew, Rutter, Deborah, Ward, Jennifer ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3018-2859, Stimson, Gerry and Renton, Adrian (2001) The prevalence and management of co-morbid substance misuse and mental illness: results of a screening survey in substance misuse and mental health treatment populations. Drug and Alcohol Review, 20 (4) . pp. 407-416. ISSN 0959-5236 [Article] (doi:10.1080/09595230120092724)

Abstract

A cross-sectional survey of clinical staff was carried out among statutory (public sector) substance misuse services and community mental health teams (CMHTs) in an inner London borough. We identified 368 current patients of drug and alcohol misuse services and 930 current patients of CMHTs. We measured the prevalence of co-morbid substance misuse and mental illness among thesepatients. We found strong evidence of co-morbid mental health problems in 128 substance misusepatients (34.8%) and evidence of possible co-morbidity in a further 18.5% of cases. Among mental health service patients, 227 (24%) were reported to have current substance misuse problems.Shared care of patients was uncommon and only a minority of co-morbid patients receivedtreatment for both problems or the specialist assessment which key workers felt they needed. The findings suggest that co-morbidity is highly prevalent among mental health and substance misusepatients. Further research is needed to corroborate these findings, but the development and provision of evidence-based treatment and service interventions is likely to become an increasing priority.

Actions (login required)

View Item

Statistics

DownloadsShow export options

Export as CSVXMLJSON

Activity Overview

6 month trend

0Downloads

6 month trend

36Hits

Additional statistics are available via IRStats2.