Drug addiction and alcoholism among people affected by schizophrenia is emerging as a significant problem among the agencies that are involved in treating the condition of schizophrenia.
Families who have members that are mentally ill are generally compounded by problems of substance abuse. Unfortunately, not many mental health services will be ready to handle cases with schizophrenia substance abuse. This becomes a matter of dual diagnosis; and the picture of dual diagnosis isn’t a very positive one at this given point in time. In most cases, only one of the two conditions might get identified. In the rare cases where both get identified, the patient might be bounced back and forth between two services where he/she might be treated for these conditions separately.
Research has been (and is being) conducted to throw light on the state of these mentally ill individuals. As per most of these studies, almost 50% of the population that is suffering from schizophrenia and other such mental illnesses will be dealing with a substance abuse problem as well. In most cases, alcohol is used frequently. Alcohol is followed by marijuana and cocaine.
The incidence of this sort of abuse is seen to be greater amongst the males; and most of them fell into the age bracket of 18 to 44.
In most cases, these individuals covertly used the drugs, without letting their caregivers know. Given the fact that their normal mode of behavior was also similar to that of being drug-induced, there were high chances of the caregivers missing symptoms of schizophrenia substance abuse.
The Drawback:
Schizophrenia substance abuse might the treatment for the person’s schizophrenia less effective. Drugs like marijuana might end up making the symptoms worse. Research has also found that there is an evident link between schizophrenic symptoms and marijuana. Moreover, people who abuse themselves with drugs are less likely to follow a treatment plan.
Smoking and Schizophrenia:
Addiction to nicotine is another common form of substance abuse among people who suffer from schizophrenia. they are said to be addicted to nicotine at almost three times the rates of the general population. the numbers stand at 75% to 90% with schizophrenia, as opposed to 25% to 30% without schizophrenia.
There is a complex relationship between the existence of smoking and schizophrenia. Schizophrenics claim that they have an incessant urge to smoke; and owing to this confession, researchers are investigating the biological basis for such an urge. Smoking, too, is known to affect the effectiveness of antipsychotic drugs.
Withdrawal symptoms, in the case of people suffering from schizophrenia, might be even worse. Nicotine replacement therapies might do better than expecting them to quit cold turkey.