Co-Occurring Medical Disorders in Addiction
- Co-Occurring means you have a medical condition like Heart Disease, Diabetes, Thyroid, Cancer, Alzheimer’s, or Arthritis along with your Addiction;
- Addiction Psychiatrists are Medical Doctors with the skills to evaluate and treat your Substance Use Disorder while working other physicians to coordinate medical care for any co-occurring medical problems;
- Failure to evaluate, diagnose and treat co-occurring medical illness is a major cause of deaths associated with alcohol and substance misuse.
It is the job of your Addiction Psychiatrists to:
- Determine if there is a co-occurring Psychiatric Conditions with or as a result of a medical disorder;
- Treat co-occurring Poly- Drug Addiction;
- Determine Suicidal Risk associated with Substance Use Disorders and Co-occurring Medical Illnesses.
Treatment Of Co-occurring Medical Conditions Decreases The Risk Of:
- Overdose and other substance related deaths;
- Drug associated suicide;
- Dropping out of a recovery program;
- Poor short and long term recovery outcomes;
- Addiction Relapse.
Diagnosis and Treatment
There is a high rate of Substance Use Disorder that occurs with a medical disorder at the same time (co-occurring). This calls for a multidisciplinary team of physicians that has the ability to diagnose and treat both simultaneously; each illness affects the course and prognosis of the other.
Our evaluation and treatment begins with an Initial Diagnostic Assessment that focuses on all medical problems and then coordinate care with other Medical Specialists.
- A Comprehensive Initial Diagnostic Medical, Psychiatric and Addiction Evaluation;
- Diagnostic Laboratory- Blood and Urine Analysis helpful in diagnosing medical disorders associated with high risk addiction behaviors, co-occurring psychiatric illness, or other medical conditions;
- Diagnostic Screening for Psychiatric disorders and premature brain aging;
- Individualized Recovery Plan based on your addiction(s) and any co-occurring medical problems;
- Addiction care coordination with Allied Medical Specialists.
Chronic Pain & Addiction
- Approximately 116 million Americans suffer from chronic pain – more than the number of people affected by diabetes, heart disease, and cancer combined;
- The over prescribing of pain killers in the treatment of painful medical disorders including arthritis, headache, lower back pain and other musculoskeletal illnesses is a major cause of Opioid Addiction;
- The over prescribing of benzodiazepines and sleep medications for anxiety and insomnia associated with painful medical illnesses often result in substance use disorders to these medications.
Medical Illness Caused by Addictions
- Life threatening medical problems are often a consequence of high-risk addict behaviors:
- HIV/AIDS
- Tuberculosis
- Hepatitis B and C
- Cirrhosis of the Liver
- Sexually Transmitted Disease
Direct, immediate and potentially deadly effects of the active and inert ingredients in drugs include:
- Seizures
- Heart Attack
- Strokes
- Psychotic Episodes