Mental illness and substance use go hand in hand. Most times, people who suffer from mental illness usually self-medicate to alleviate the symptoms. Those who engage in substance use usually experience symptoms of mental illness. This behavior can be seen among anyone who suffers from either mental illness or substance use disorder. Individuals who have a substance use disorder and a serious mental illness are seen anywhere from 10% to as high as 74%, depending on the setting in which the census is taken. However, the prevalence of this vicious cycle has been frequently seen among adolescents recently. I have heard so many people say, “Well, I don’t do that stuff, I smoke this.” Well, let’s crush that argument right now.
Let’s start with the most commonly used substance in this country right now, cannabis. Mental illness can result from cannabis use, such as psychosis and Schizophrenia. In a study that was conducted 27% of the patients who were seen in this particular setting, reported that they were currently using cannabis. Of the patients in the same setting, who were seen for symptoms of mental illness, 20.6% reported that they were currently using alcohol and 10.4% of the patients reported that they were currently using amphetamines. These patients were diagnosed as suffering from either major affective or non-affective psychosis.
Oftentimes, many patients are seen in the emergency room for psychotic symptoms, which are then diagnosed as having drug-induced psychosis. This study reported that the substances that were found to be the culprits were cannabis opioids, and amphetamines. This blog was created from the research of two different countries! Countries that are thousands of miles apart from each other! The symptoms that were noted the most among these various patients were disorganized thoughts, delusional behavior, and other strange and unusual behaviors. Schizophrenia, Bipolar disorder, and Depression are most commonly seen among drug users, along with general psychosis.
David Barbic, Madelyn Whyte, Gurwinder Sidhu, Allesandra Luongo, Tapash Apu Chakraborty, Frank Scheuermeyer, William G. Honer, & Robert Stenstrom. (2022). One-year mortality of emergency department patients with substance-induced psychosis. Plos One, 17(6). https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0270307
Henk S. Temmingh, Sumaya Mall, Fleur M. Howells, Goodman Sibeko, & Dan J. Stein. (2020). The prevalence and clinical correlates of substance use disorders in patients with psychotic disorders from an Upper-Middle-Income Country. South African Journal of Psychiatry, 26(0), e1–e9. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajpsychiatry.v26i0.1473