Comorbidity Diagnoses and Treatment

The high rate of comorbid substance abuse and mental illness points to the need for a comprehensive approach that identifies, evaluates and simultaneously treats both disorders. Patients with co-occurring disorders often exhibit more severe symptoms than either disorder alone, underscoring the need for integrated treatment. Careful diagnosis and monitoring helps ensure that doctors do not mistake symptoms related to drug abuse, like intoxication and withdrawal, for a discrete mental disorder. Even in people whose comorbidities do not occur simultaneously, research shows that mental disorders can increase vulnerability to subsequent drug abuse and that drug abuse constitutes a risk factor for subsequent mental disorders. Therefore, diagnosis and treatment of one disorder will likely reduce risk for the other or at least improve its prognosis. Many researchers strongly support the need to develop effective interventions to treat both conditions concurrently, but treatment has been difficult to implement in practice because the health care systems in place to treat substance abuse and mental illness are disjointed and inefficient. Physicians tend to treat patients with mental illnesses, whereas a mix of providers with varying backgrounds delivers drug abuse treatment. Some substance abuse treatment centers do not administer any medications, including those necessary to treat patients with severe mental disorders. Behavioral treatment options that doctors customize for a given age group or gender show promise for treating drug abuse and mental disorder comorbidities. Research is under way to identify medications that target both types of disorders. Clinicians and researchers generally agree that broad spectrum diagnosis and concurrent therapies, both pharmacological and behavioral, will lead to better outcomes for patients with comorbid disorders. The stigma attached to substance abuse and mental disorders often hinders early diagnosis and proper treatment. Greater understanding resulting from recent scientific findings that substance abuse and mental illness disrupt some of the same brain functions will reduce the social stigma that hinders treatment seeking, quality and access by patients with either or both conditions.

Brief Strategic Family Therapy

Brief strategic family therapy targets family interactions that doctors think maintain or exacerbate adolescent drug abuse and other problem behaviors. Some problem behaviors include conduct problems at home and at school, oppositional behavior, delinquency, associating with antisocial peers, aggressive and violent behavior and risky sexual behavior. Brief strategic family therapy addresses a family systems approach to treatment, where the therapists view the behavior of family members as interdependent, suggesting that of any one family member the adolescent who uses drugs is indicative, at least in part, of what else is going on in the family system. The counselor identifies the patterns of family interaction associated with the behavioral problems of the adolescent assists in changing those problems. Brief strategic family therapy is a flexible approach that can be adapted to suit a broad range of family situations in various settings. Therapists employ brief strategic family therapy in mental health clinics, drug abuse treatment programs, other social service settings and in homes and at outpatient interventions, in combination with residential or day treatment and as aftercare or continuing care service to residential treatment.

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Pharmaceuticals Worth Scoring

Getting high by using legitimate medicine has become as easy as obtaining traditionally illicit drugs. Prescription drugs are widely available and people commonly use them. The potential for abuse and addiction parallels the increasing use of prescription drugs.

Xanax

Doctors prescribe Xanax for panic disorders, anxiety attacks and anxiety caused by depression. The generic Alprazolam is a fast-acting drug of the benzodiazepine class, popular among individuals seeking a means to reduce stress. Sometimes people crush or insufflate Xanax in pill form. When a person insufflates, or crushes, the pill into a powder to snort it, the body rapidly absorbs Xanax, imbuing a relaxed and sedated affair.
Codeine is a narcotic pain medicine found in prescription cough syrups. Popularized by hip-hop culture, "purple drank" is a recreational concoction of cough syrup mixed with lemon-lime sodas and produces a euphoric, relaxing high. Codeine also exists in pill form under the brand name Tylenol 1-4.
Doctors prescribe Adderall to treat patients with attention deficit disorders. An amphetamine, Adderall provides relief to easily distracted, overly emotional or highly impulsive patients. Popular with high school and college kids, Adderall increases concentration and focus when cramming for exams while producing a stimulating and energetic mindset.

Oxycontin

The generic oxycodone treats cancer and chronic pain and when orally ingested provides patients with pain relief. Also branded as Percocet with acetaminophen, people can abuse this pill is by chewing, insufflation or injection. These methods give users a euphoric narcotic bliss unmatched in the narcotic world, until recently. Producers of Oxycontin now make the drug with a formula that is harder to abuse, but opiate users have sought out other derivatives of oxycodone to satisfy cravings.
Opana, generic oxymorphone is a group of narcotic painkillers similar to morphine.
Doctors prescribe Opana to treat moderate to severe pain. Opana seems destined to dethrone Oxycontin as the primary narcotic of choice as Oxycontin becomes less user friendly. When consumed by insufflation, the euphoric capacity of Opana surpasses oxycodone and possibly that of heroin.
Sources:
http://listverse.com/2010/12/21/top-10-abused-prescription-drugs
http://www.drugs.com/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Purple_drank