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VIDEO: Treatment approaches for co-occurring substance use, psychiatric disorders

ATLANTA — In this video, Edward Nunes, MD, a professor of psychiatry at Columbia University Medical Center and New York Presbyterian Hospital, provides a number of treatment approaches for co-occurring substance use and psychiatric disorders.

“Depression, anxiety and other mental health disorders are very common in patients with substance use disorders,” Nunes told Healio.com/Psychiatry. “It’s important to distinguish — as DSM-5 does — independent depression or anxiety disorders from substance-induced depression or anxiety from usual effects of substances such as intoxication and withdrawal. In any case, start substance use disorder treatment in patients who have both and initiate treatment for independent depression as soon as you confirm it is independent.”

Nunes emphasizes the importance of obtaining a strong patient history in order to successfully treat co-occurring disorders and how psychiatrists can go about doing so.