Sa. Maisto et al., Methods of changing patterns of substance use among individuals with co-occurring schizophrenia and substance use disorder, J SUBST ABU, 17(3), 1999, pp. 221-227
Individuals with a severe mental illness and substance use disorder tend to
have medical and social problems and to make slower progress in treatment
than those who have either disorder alone. Nevertheless, little attention h
as been paid to the discovery of effective effective methods of modifying s
ubstance use in the severely mentally ill (SMI). The purpose of this study
was to collect qualitative data as a way to help identify techniques that m
ight help to change patterns of substance use in the SMT. The participants
were 21 men and women who were psychiatric clinic outpatients and who had a
current schizophrenia spectrum diagnosis. A total of 18 participants had a
lifetime diagnosis of alcohol abuse or dependence, and 21 lifetime other d
rug diagnoses were recorded for the sample. These individuals participated
in focus group discussions about topics related to substance cue and people
's experiences with trying to quit. The results showed that participants id
entified several therapeutic and extratherapeutic factors that helped them
to initiate and maintain changes in their,substance use, as well as factors
that hindered change. The findings are related to knowledge about the effe
ctiveness of substance use disorder treatment techniques in general, and im
plications of the data are discussed for the conduct of integrated treatmen
t of individuals with severe mental illness and a substance use disorder. (
C) 1999 Elsevier Science Inc. All rights reserved.