How can dual diagnosis be treated

A person with Dual diagnosis is affected with substance abuse and mental health disorder at the same time. Therefore, it is very important to find out the cause of substance abuse and mental health problem, individually in these people and to study and then draft out a proper method for the diagnosis of this dual diagnosis problem in an individual. Today many psychiatrists and drug counselors’ unisomely agree to the need to treat both these disorders at the same time. It is studied that when both these disorders are treated simultaneously, there was a decrease in the rate of suicide attempts and psychotic episodes in the people affected with dual diagnosis.

Treating people affected with dual diagnosis can be bit difficult as these people cannot be easily engaged in one thing, they do not get motivated easily and they also suffer from poor medication compliance.

The treatment is carried on with the help of mental health team that provides social and family support to the affected. They also help make the patient understand his nature of illness and what can be done to treat it completely. The counselors also motivate the patient to improve his condition and induce some change in his lifestyle.

The active treatment for the dual diagnosis consists of combination of various methods like medication, counseling, education and also involves cognitive therapy, ensuring the family involvement throughout the treatment process. It is believed that if new coping skills are developed in the person affected with dual diagnosis along with a proper social network, it can help drastically in bringing success to the treatment process.

The treatment of the dual diagnosis also consists of the prevention of relapse and is the most important stage of the dual diagnosis treatment. Here, the patient is educated about the various situations, which will make him vulnerable to substance abuse and how to overcome these situations in order to avoid the risk of dual diagnosis in his future.