ABSTRACT

For the past 15 years, interest in developing and implementing new treatments for patients dually diagnosed with substance use disorders and coexisting psychiatric disorders has grown significantly (1-4). One major reason for this attention has been the fact that this patient population has traditionally had poor outcomes; when compared with individuals with either disorder alone, dually diagnosed patients have an increased rate of hospitalization, medication non-compliance, homelessness, criminality, and suicide (58). Research in the early 1980s by McLellan et al. (9,10) demonstrated the ineffectiveness of certain forms of traditional substance abuse treatment for psychiatrically ill substance abusers; this served as an impetus for clinicians and researchers to develop treatment approaches that are specifically suited to dually diagnosed patients.