Addiction and Mood Disorders: A Guide for Clients and Families

Millions of individuals diagnosed with severe mental illness also suffer from an equally powerful substance use disorder. If you or someone you love has been diagnosed with dual disorders, this book can help. Addiction and Mood Disorders: A Guide for Clients and Families is designed primarily to educate individuals with dual disorders and their families about mood and addictive use disorders. It not only gives a message of hope, but also provides practical suggestions on ways to manage these disorders. The author provides guidelines and strategies for recovery from dual disorders based on, and adapted from various treatments that have proven effective for addiction, mood disorders, or both. This book is filled with case examples that show growth and positive change, as well as the difficulties many individuals struggling with a dual diagnosis face. Advocating a recovery model in which the affected individual takes responsibility for getting the most out of professional treatment and self-help programs, this book shows that being an active participant is the key to getting the most out of your recovery. This book is for use not only by those individuals who suffer from addiction and mental illness, but also by their family, friends, and other members of their support system. Professionals who work with these individuals will find this book to be a useful guide in their clinical work as well.

Doody Review Services

Reviewer:Adriana M. Cortes, MD(Rush University Medical Center)
Description:This book focuses on education of patients with dual diagnosis and their families. It contains explanations of mood disorders and addictions, as well as the type of addictions, and provides behavioral strategies to achieve recovery.
Purpose:The purpose is to use the author's experience with addiction and mood disorders to educate and provide suggestions on achieving recovery. The book also suggests a recovery model in which patients and family are actively involved.
Audience:The book is written for patients with dual diagnosis and their family members. It also can be helpful for therapists dealing with substance abuse patients. The author is the chief of addiction medicine services and an associate professor of psychiatry at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center. He is also a principal investigator of the Appalachian Tri-State Node of the clinical trials network of the National Institute on Drug Abuse. He has more than 250 publications on recovery from alcohol and drug problems.
Features:Initially the author defines what mood disorders are and what addictions are, then explains how pharmacotherapy has been found useful in the treatment of dual disorders. He discusses how to connect patients' feelings and cognition related to their diagnosis. He also provides some behavioral aids to help patients with recovery. I found the tables in this book useful and practical.
Assessment:This is an informative and practical book for dual diagnosis patients and their families.