Profile of Patients with Dual Diagnosis: Experience from an Integrated Dual Diagnosis Clinic in North India

Abstract

Dual diagnosis is the co-occurrence of substance use disorder and other psychiatric disorder. Till date the existence of integrated dual diagnosis clinic (DDC) in India is not known. The Drug De-addiction and treatment centre of our hospital has initiated one of the first such clinics in India in October, 2009. In a retrospective chart-based review of consecutive patients over 28 months from August 2011 till December 2013, 287 case files of clinically confirmed dual diagnosis cases (representing 15% of all substance use disorder cases registered in our drug treatment centre) were analyzed. Mood disorders were the commonest psychiatric diagnosis (141, 49.1%), followed by psychotic disorders (65, 22.6%), anxiety and stress related disorders (58, 20.2%), organic disorders (6, 2%) and other mental disorders (22, 7.7%). Alcohol, opioid and cannabis were the common substances used. These preliminary data provide an overview of the profile of patients with dual diagnosis in a substance use treatment centre in north India. This should help in planning and delivering adequate and optimal services for this group of patients.

Clinical care of patients with dual disorders in India: diverse models of care delivery

“…These facilities also conduct weekly academic programs such as case conferences, journal clubs and seminars where issues related to dual diagnosis are also discussed. Faculty members at these facilities are engaged in research on dual disorders and the findings have been published in various peer reviewed academic journals, (Balhara et al, 2017b(Balhara et al, , 2017a(Balhara et al, , 2016aBalhara, 2022;Tripathi et al, 2021;Singh Balhara et al, 2021;Basu et al, 2013;Ghosh, 2015;Subodh et al, 2019;Subodh et al, 2017;Ghosh et al, 2022).…”