Why Go to a Dual Diagnosis Rehab

by | Aug 22, 2012 | Health

Dual diagnosis patients are people who have co-occurring disorders of mental illness and addiction to drugs. Dual diagnosis patients have to go through an intensive treatment process and the treatment is not easy since each problem tends to worsen the other. These are the people who need to go to a dual diagnosis rehab where the problems can be identified and well handled. To make matters worse, with dual diagnosis, the symptoms for drug addiction and those of mental treatment tend to be similar and this often makes it hard for doctors to identify and treat the two conditions separately.

A dual diagnosis rehab usually provides the right environment for the patients with dual diagnosis to recover. One example of a dual diagnosis patient is that of an individual who suffers from bi-polar disorder as well as a strong addiction to drugs. People suffering from bi-polar disorder have unpredictable mood swings and they can change from one mood to the other without warning. Studies have shown that individuals with bi-polar disorders are more prone to suicide than the rest of the population. Usually, individuals with bi-polar disorder usually turn to drugs in an effort to overcome the effects of the condition, but drugs only make matters worse.

At a dual diagnosis rehab, you will find the right equipment necessary for the assessment and the treatment of the dual diagnosis. Before the treatment can be commenced, a proper diagnosis has to be conducted so as to identify the problem the patient is suffering from aside from the addiction. If proper diagnosis is not done, a patient may end up being treated for one condition while the other is left unattended to. For instance, you may treat the patient for a drug addiction and fail to notice that the patient is suffering from schizophrenia as well. By doing so, the patient may complete the drug addiction treatment but still relapse due to the mental disorder.

In addition, a dual diagnosis rehab should be equipped with the right professionals to handle both the drug addiction problems as well as the mental disorders. A mental disorder and drug addiction are two different problems that need to be treated separately. This means that a patient suffering from say an eating disorder and drug addiction has to be treated for the two conditions separately.

The treatment for an eating disorder is different from that of drug addiction. It is therefore important for the patient to go to a rehab where he/she can be attended to by professionals who understand their condition very well. In a dual diagnosis rehab, the patients are subjected to medication and also psychotherapy treatments. The medication is mainly aimed at helping the patients overcome the problem of withdrawal syndrome, which is rather common after withdrawing from drugs.

 

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