ABSTRACT
Dual diagnosis is a term that refers quite simply and literally to the occurrence of two mental disorders within the same person at the same time (L. A. Pagliaro, 1990b). Other closely related terms, such as dual addiction, which has been used to refer to concomitant alcoholism and drug abuse (Kreek & Stimmel, 1984),1 comorbidity, which has been used to refer to cases of two diagnosable entities in the realm of substance abuse and mental illness (Belfer, 1993), and dual disorder, which has been used torefer to concurrent diagnoses of alcoholism plus a psychiatric diagnosis (Daley, Moss, & Campbell, 1987, p. 3), also are in common use. This diversity in terms has contributed to semantic confusion in the published literature and in clinical settings (Fields, 1995).
