Dual-Diagnosis Treatment

Dual Diagnosis Addiction Treatment
Because many individuals with a substance addiction disorder also suffer from a co-occurring mental health disorder, the need for the ability to address both issues in treatment continues to grow. Dual diagnosis drug treatment addresses these issues by providing integrated care from both addiction treatment professionals and psychiatric care experts.

The American Society of Addiction Medicine Manual enhances the ability of the ASAM criteria to meet the evolving diverse patient needs by incorporating criteria that address the large dynamics of individuals who present for treatment with co-occurring substance-related disorders and mental health disorders. Individuals with such co-occurring disorders (referred to as “dual diagnosis”) can belong to one of two categories:

- Moderate Severity Disorders: Such persons present with stable mood or anxiety disorders of moderate severity (including resolving bipolar disorder), or with personality disorders of moderate severity (although some persons with severe levels of antisocial personality disorder may be appropriately placed in this group), or with signs and symptoms of a mental health disorder that are not so severe as to meet the diagnostic threshold.

- High Severity Disorders: such persons present with schizophrenia-spectrum disorders, severe mood disorders with psychotic features, severe anxiety disorders, or severe personality disorders (such as fragile borderline conditions).

New Roads is a Dual Diagnosis Capable Program, having a primary focus on the treatment of substance-related disorders, but also are capable of treating patients who have relatively stable diagnostic or subdiagnostic co-occurring mental health problems related to an emotional, behavioral or cognitive disorder.

New Roads Treatment Centers meets the needs of individuals whose psychiatric disorders are stable and who are capable of independent functioning, so that their mental disorders do not interfere significantly with their participation in addiction treatment. Such individuals may have severe and persistent mental illnesses that are in a relatively stable phase at the time that they need addiction treatment. Other individuals may have difficulties in mood, behavior or cognition as the result of a psychiatric or substance-induced disorder, or their emotional behavioral or cognitive symptoms may not rise to the level of a diagnosable mental disorder. Such individuals need counseling and coordinated mental health interventions so that primary therapy can be focused on their substance-related disorders.

New Roads has the ability to provide psychopharmacologic monitoring and psychological assessment and consultation. Our program professionals are able to address the interaction of the substance-related and mental disorders in assessing individual’s readiness to change, relapse risk, and recovery environment.