DUAL DIAGNOSIS ON “SUBSTANCE ABUSE”

Abstract

Three large U.S. epidemiological surveys researching the prevalence of comorbid psychiatric illness and “substance abuse disorders” are reviewed: the Epidemiological Catchment Area Study, (N = 20,219); the National Comorbidity Survey (N = 8098), and the National Longitudinal Alcohol Epidemiological Survey (N = 42,862). Findings suggest that comorbidity is highly prevalent but that longitudinal information remains limited limited—which restricts understanding of its “natural history,” stability, common risk factors, and causal relationships.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Maurício Silva de Lima

Maurício Silva de Lima, Ph.D., graduated in Medicine at the Universidade Federal de Pelotas, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil. He completed his residency in Psychiatry and took a Masters Degree in Epidemiology at the same institution, and subsequently took a Ph.D. in Psychiatry at the Universidade Federal de São Paulo, Brazil. From 1996 to 1997 he did a postdoctoral training at the Institute of Psychiatry, Section of Epidemiology, University of London, and is currently an Honorary Senior Lecture of this Section. He is now living in Pelotas, Southern Brazil, where he is an Associate Professor of Psychiatry at Universidade Federal de Pelotas & Universidade Católica de Pelotas, and is also the director of a Center of Evidence-Based Medicine.

Cecília Fernandes Lorea

Cecília Fernandes Lorea is a medical student at Universidade Federal de Pelotas who has a scholarship from the Brazilian National Research Council (CNPq). She has been a research worker at Centro de Medicina Baseada em Evidências, Universidade Federal de Pelotas, RS, Brazil.

Mariana Palazzo Carpena

Mariana Palazzo Carpena is a medical student at Universidade Federal de Pelotas who has scholarship from the Brazilian National Research Council (CNPq). She has been a research worker at Centro de Medicina Baseada em Evidências, Universidade Federal de Pelotas, RS, Brazil.