Mental illness and substance misuse: a nursing challenge

The treatment of patients diagnosed with a coexisting psychiatric and psychoactive substance misuse disorder remains an important clinical challenge in mental health nursing. This is not only because of the complexity of the disorder, but also because an increasing number of patients are presenting both disorders (i.e. coexisting psychiatric and psychoactive substance disorder). This article will review the literature on the subject of severe mental illness and substance misuse by examining various issues, including the phenomenon of dual diagnosis and its prevalence, the nature of the relationship between substance misuse and severe mental illness, the extent of the problem of illicit substance use among the psychiatric population, treatment trends and management models.