Co-occurring disorders: Predicting treatment outcome and recovery maintenance in outpatients

Individuals with co-occurring mental and substance use disorders challenge both clinicians and the treatment delivery system. This reality represents a major public health concern, a matter with devastating human, social, and economic consequences. This study was designed to determine the general prevalence of co-occurring mental disorder symptomology in a substance abuse outpatient treatment seeking population. Additionally, this study identified individuals who experienced high versus low integrated treatment outcomes, classifying participants into four distinct subgroups, based these integrated treatment outcomes. Differences between these four subgroups were suggestive of unique patterns of specific characteristics among adults with co-occurring mental and substance use disorders. Finally, and perhaps the most clinically significant, this study discriminated which Addiction Severity Index (ASI) subscale composite scores were the most significant in predicting the four hypothesized subgroups of individuals with co-occurring disorders.