PREDICTING ACCEPTANCE OF TREATMENT IN MALE DUAL-DIAGNOSIS OUTPATIENTS

The authors studied a cohort of 128 male veterans undergoing preadmiss ion screening for a specialized outpatient program for chronically men tally ill substance abusers. Demographic, substance abuse, and comorbi d psychiatric variables were evaluated for their correlation with acce ptance (44 patients) or rejection (84 patients) of the treatment offer ed. A later age at onset of both substance abuse and comorbid psychiat ric illness significantly increased the likelihood of acceptance, as d id the presence of a primary alcohol use disorder and the absence of c urrent medical problems. A strong correlation was observed between the age at onset of substance abuse and comorbid psychiatric disorder, su ggesting that in many dual-diagnosis patients the two disorders could be manifestations of a single process.