[Alcohol dependence and psychiatric comorbidity. II. Clinical and therapeutic implications]

We revise the implications that comorbidity presents from a clinical and therapeutical point of view; either in alcohol dependence or in other psychiatric disorders connected with it. From the clinical point of view, comorbidity as a whole does not produce specific consequences but each psychiatric disorder introduces peculiar characteristics in the association. Once the stability of the associated disorder has been proved, after two or three week's withdrawal, the management of comorbidity has to be based on the treatment of every single associated disorder as if they had no connection between them, within the framework of integrated programs.