Substance Abuse Comorbidity and Major Psychiatric Disorders: Are There Differences in Outcomes?

In what direction substance abuse comorbidity modifies the course and outcome of major psychiatric disorders is not yet established. We designed the index study to generate some empirical hypotheses regarding outcome of major psychiatric disorders in patients with substance abuse comorbidity. The sample included patients of two major psychiatric disorders-schizophrenia and mania. Each diagnostic category consisted of two subgroups-(i) single diagnosis (n=30) and (ii) dual dignosis (n=30) drawn from the patients presenting at Institute of Mental Health and Hospital. Agra. PANSS (Kay et al. 1987) was administered on each patient at admission in indoor facilities and at three month follow up irrespective of admission status. The non-parametric analysis indicated that substance abuse comorbidity group particularly mania subgroup showed superior outcome al follow up.