Comorbidity of psychiatric and alcohol/drug disorders: interactions and independent status.

Dual diagnosis as interpreted in clinical psychiatric practice is often not what the term means-two independent disorders. Commonly, addiction disorders are attributed to self medicating of "underlying" psychiatric disorders, there by, a contingency status. However, studies and clinical addiction practice show that drug and alcohol addiction must be afforded an independent status before accurate assessment and assignment of interactions in dual diagnosis can be made in clinical conditions. Studies also show rates for psychiatric comorbidity are low in addiction populations and rates for addictive disorders are high in psychiatric populations. If the common denominator is taken as addiction, then the perspective of the setting and examiner become crucial in determining prevalence rates for both disorders. Most importantly, effective treatment of either disorder will not occur unless an agreement on an independent status is accepted for both addictive and psychiatric disorders in any patient population setting.