The course and treatment of substance use disorder in persons with severe mental illness.

Abstract

There is now a widespread acceptance that persons with severe mental illness are at increased risk to develop substance use disorders (alcohol and drug abuse/dependence). Reviews of the prevalence of substance use disorders in clients with schizophrenia (Mueser et al. 1990), bipolar disorder (Goodwin and Jamison 1990), and the young, chronically mentally ill (Safer 1987) indicate a wide range of prevalence estimates, from as low as 10 percent to over 65 percent. Variability in prevalence rates can be attributed to differences across studies in factors such as the setting in which clients are sampled (e.g., community mental health center, acute inpatient, chronic inpatient), methods for assessing psychiatric and substance use disorders (e.g., structured clinical interview, chart review), and the demographic mix of the study sample (e.g., proportion of males) (Galanter et al. 1988; Mueser et al. 1995).