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Abstract
Objective: We examined and compared mental health and substance use problems among patients in substance use disorder treatment as reported by both patients and treatment personnel, and explored the feasibility of the quadrant model in addressing severity of mental health and substance use based on reports by treatment personnel.
Methods: Patients receiving inpatient substance use treatment at clinics in Norway were recruited for the study; 85 completed a cross-sectional survey. Treatment personnel completed a separate survey and gathered information from patient charts.
Results: While there were minor differences in the patient and personnel reported prevalence of mental disorders in general (34 and 41%, respectively), there were significant differences in reported affective disorders (p = 0.05) and personality disorders (p = 0.02). Based on the quadrant model, 70.2% of the patients had a high severity of substance use and low severity of mental health problems, while 21.4% had high severity of both.
Conclusions: The differences in reports of mental disorders are important, and future research should aim to increase the validity and reliability of reported mental health problems among patients with substance use disorders. The quadrant model does seem to be a feasible model in addressing the severity of such co-occurring disorders.
Acknowledgements
The authors would like to thank the patients who consented to participate in the study and the treatment personnel who completed the questionnaires and collected data.
Declaration of interest
None of the authors report any financial relationships with commercial interests. The source of funding had no role in the design, collection, analysis or interpretation of the data, the writing of the manuscript, or the decision to submit the manuscript for publication.
This study was funded by the Liaison Committee between the Central Norway Regional Health Authority (RHA) and the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU).