The comorbidity between anxiety and alcohol or substance use disorders represents a common and serious clinical challenge, characterized by a high worldwide prevalence. The co-occurrence of these disorders complicates treatment, management and prognosis of both disorders, but it remains often unrecognized and untreated. Mental health professionals should accurately assess and evaluate this comorbidity, although related etiological links and temporal relationships are still unclear and, probably, heterogeneous and multi-factorial. Individuals may misuse alcohol and substances to self-medicate their anxiety, avoidant and phobic symptoms, and, on the other hand, anxiety disorders may be induced by alcohol and/or substance misuse. Integrated treatment appears the most promising approach, but there is paucity of evidence on pharmacological and non-pharmacological treatments addressed to both anxiety and substance use disorders. This chapter provides a comprehensive overview of main epidemiological and clinical issues, etiological/temporal links hypotheses, and treatment options for the comorbidity between anxiety and addictive behaviors.
Bartoli, F., Carretta, D., Carrà, G. (2020). Comorbid Anxiety and Alcohol or Substance Use Disorders: An Overview. In N. el-Guebaly, G. Carrà, M. Galanter, A.M. Baldacchino (a cura di), Textbook of Addiction Treatment International Perspectives (pp. 1315-1325). Springer Science+Business Media [10.1007/978-3-030-36391-8_92].
Comorbid Anxiety and Alcohol or Substance Use Disorders: An Overview
Bartoli F.;Carrà G.
2020
Abstract
The comorbidity between anxiety and alcohol or substance use disorders represents a common and serious clinical challenge, characterized by a high worldwide prevalence. The co-occurrence of these disorders complicates treatment, management and prognosis of both disorders, but it remains often unrecognized and untreated. Mental health professionals should accurately assess and evaluate this comorbidity, although related etiological links and temporal relationships are still unclear and, probably, heterogeneous and multi-factorial. Individuals may misuse alcohol and substances to self-medicate their anxiety, avoidant and phobic symptoms, and, on the other hand, anxiety disorders may be induced by alcohol and/or substance misuse. Integrated treatment appears the most promising approach, but there is paucity of evidence on pharmacological and non-pharmacological treatments addressed to both anxiety and substance use disorders. This chapter provides a comprehensive overview of main epidemiological and clinical issues, etiological/temporal links hypotheses, and treatment options for the comorbidity between anxiety and addictive behaviors.
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