What Is The Relationship Between Schizophrenia And Addictions?
Although psychiatric illnesses and psychological disorders are defined and limited in diagnostic manuals, beyond the pages the reality is that, in practice, there are many pathologies that overlap with each other in various aspects.
Thus, for example, there are symptoms that may be typical of depression and bipolar disorder, and only a global vision of a patient’s mental processes and behavior allows us to distinguish which alteration affects them.
But these blurred boundaries between pathologies are present even in the dividing lines that separate disorders that are practically nothing alike. For example, this is what happens when it is observed that a large proportion of people who develop one disease also develop the other… something that happens with schizophrenia and addictive disorders.
In this article we will explore the topic of What is the relationship between schizophrenia and drug addictions? and what implications this has in the treatment of these pathologies.
Schizophrenia is a mental illness suffered by approximately 0.5% of the general population at some point in their lives, being the most common psychotic disorder Although it can manifest itself for the first time during childhood or adolescence, the most common thing is that its symptoms begin to manifest between 25 and 30 years of age.
Being a pathology linked to the spectrum of psychotic disorders, schizophrenia is associated with the concept of a break with reality; That is to say, those who develop it suffer severe alterations in basic processes to have personal autonomy, such as the perception and interpretation of facts, and the management of thoughts and emotions. These symptoms are not always present, but are expressed throughout “crises”, although in some cases the beginning and end of these episodes may be gradual and not too defined.
In addition to being varied, The symptoms of schizophrenia can be divided into two types: positive symptoms and negative symptoms The former encompass the set of alterations that are characterized by the presence of strange elements in the person’s way of thinking or perceiving things: hallucinations and delusions, mainly. For their part, negative symptoms are characterized by the lack of elaboration or intention in psychological processes necessary to live adequately in society and have a good quality of life, such as a deficit in emotional response to important events, poor use of language , or the persistent tendency toward social isolation.
This set of symptoms has internal and external causes, and many of them can be facilitated by the social dynamics that occur around the person (the clearest example being social isolation).
In any case, Another characteristic of schizophrenia is its destabilizing nature of people’s lives which is associated with a greater predisposition to develop other psychiatric diseases or psychological disorders.
What link unites addictions and schizophrenia?
As we have anticipated, there is numerous evidence that people with one or more drug addictions (with polydrug addiction) are overrepresented among those who have developed schizophrenia. That is Among people with a diagnosis of schizophrenia, the proportion of people with addiction to psychoactive substances is much higher than the population average in general. Thus, while approximately between 16% and 20% of the population has developed an addictive disorder towards a drug (legal or illegal), in those who have been diagnosed with schizophrenia this percentage rises to 47%. The drugs most consumed by this segment of the population after tobacco are alcohol, cannabis and cocaine.
The implications of this phenomenon are serious, because although addictive disorders are already pathologies that must be treated as soon as possible, drug abuse and dependence statistically makes people with schizophrenia more likely to suffer psychotic crises, not complying with the doctor’s instructions or abandoning treatment, adopting violent behavior patterns, losing autonomy, and developing suicidal ideation, among other things. Furthermore, this group of patients is more likely to relapse into drug use after trying to overcome addiction.
So, Drug use makes the development of schizophrenia worse, but it also creates the conditions for the person to develop other psychological disorders (such as depressive disorders) that derive from the accumulation of behavioral and emotional problems and imbalances generated by this combination of pathologies.
What are the causes of this relationship between diseases?
To date, the causes of this relationship between schizophrenia and drug addiction are still not known in great detail; That is, the causal mechanisms behind this overlap remain relatively hidden. In any case, The scientific consensus is that there is not a single cause, but a combination of several biosocial factors that interact with each other
However, in recent years several hypotheses have been suggested based on increasing empirical evidence. One of them is the self-medication hypothesis in people with schizophrenia, according to which those who develop this disease try to incorporate elements into their nervous system that help them restore a certain balance in the chemical imbalance that generates schizophrenia. So, the use of drugs would be a semi-conscious way to “counteract” neuropsychological alterations from which the symptoms of the pathology arise.
On the other hand, the hypothesis of genetic predisposition is also worth highlighting. According to this, there are a series of genetic configurations that are at the basis of both the propensity to develop schizophrenia and the propensity to get “hooked” on a drug In any case, the idea that both pathologies arise simply from the genetic code is denied; Simply put, a combination of certain alleles would contribute to the appearance of these health problems, but it would not be a determining element.
Furthermore, it is known that The use of certain drugs can trigger a psychotic condition that consolidates into schizophrenia so that once an addiction has established itself, it is easier for there to be a predisposition to schizophrenia for it to manifest.
Are you looking for treatment for addictive disorders?
If you are looking for treatment for addictions with or without substances, contact our team of professionals.
In CITA Clinics We specialize in intervention against this type of pathology, and we offer both outpatient care and complete detoxification, dishabituation and rehabilitation treatments through admission to our residential module located in Dosrius (Barcelona). In our fully equipped facilities we work from both medicine and psychotherapy to make it possible for patients to escape the vicious cycle of dependence and gain health and quality of life while minimizing the risk of relapses.
