Question

Evidence indicates that as many as 90% of all people seeking treatment for a drug or alcohol use disorder also meet diagnostic criteria for another psychiatric disorder. This situation, termed co-morbidity, can arise for many reasons and can take many forms. Name a few highly prevalent forms of co-morbidity and describe how they might influence long term recovery from the respective disorders.

Answer 1

The phenomenen of cooccurence of more than one disorder in an individual is referred to as Comorbidity.

The common examples of Comorbidity are

- Cooccurence of Hypertension in diabetic patients

- Cooccurence of STROKE or Myocardial infarction in hypertensive patients.

- Cooccurence of migraine in Hypothyroidism.

- Cooccurence of Psychiatric disorders in dementia patients.

- Cooccurence of Psychiatric disorders in epilepsy patients.

Influence of Comorbidities on long term recovery

The presence of Comorbidities in a patient affects the symptamatology, diagnosis, treatment and prognosis of primary illness . Comorbid illnesses contribute to the primary illness and increases it's severity, for example Cooccurence of Hypertension in a diabetic individual increases the risk for vascular events like stroke . Often the Comorbid illnesses like psychiatric ailments masks the primary illnesses like dementia or epilepsy and makes it difficult to diagnose. Often for the complete recovery of the patient, treatment of primary as well as Comorbid illnesses are required for example, treatment of Hypothyroidism is necessary for recovery in migraine patients with Hypothyroidism. In some cases prognosis depends on the successful treatment of Comorbidities for example, successful management of Hypertension in stroke patients reduces the risk of recurrent stroke. Also in some cases Comorbidities makes it difficult to treat the primary illness, for example, psychiatric symptoms in an epilepsy patient often makes epilepsy refractory to treatment.

Summarizing, Comorbidities by altering the symptamatology, increasing the severity , masking the diagnosis , making the treatment difficult as well as by altering the prognosis have an adverse influence on long-term recovery from primary illness.