Ch. 2: Comorbidity with Addiction

Our second chapter is about comorbidity and comes from the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA; 2010) research report, Comorbidity: Addiction and Other Mental Illness. This is where that distinction made in Chapter 1 comes into play: it addresses co-occurring diagnosable conditions, not many of the other kinds of personal, family, or community problems that co-occur with substance use. The concepts presented in this piece are relevant, although some of the statistics have shifted a bit. These are more up-to-date in the material you read in Chapter 1. Another point to consider as you read this chapter: the authors define co-morbidity as two disorders that co-occur. However, this should probably read “two or more” because individuals may experience more than two at a time.

In this chapter, you will read about:

• childhood ADHD and later drug problems
• the overlap between smoking and schizophrenia
• how common over-lapping conditions are
• why substance use disorders so commonly co-occur with other mental disorders (especially the brain-related reasons)
• issues in diagnosis and treatment of comorbid conditions
• exposure to traumatic events and the risk of substance use disorders