Substance abuse treatment for people with schizophrenia

Substance abuse by people with schizophrenia is a serious public health problem that is associated with poor treatment compliance, increased rates of relapse, and disruption of role functioning. There is widespread agreement on the need to integrate psychiatric and substance abuse treatment for this dual disorder, but to date there are no specific treatments with solid empirical support. We first review the primary consequences of substance abuse by people with schizophrenia and then examine what is currently known about their treatment needs. We then describe the special problems faced by this population that interfere with their ability to reduce substance use, with or without treatment. The remainder of the paper focuses on description of a new behavioral treatment we have developed to compensate for the cognitive and motivational deficits that characterize the illness. We describe the development process and present some process data that demonstrate that the intervention is safe and acceptable for people with schizophrenia, and that we are able to train therapists to administer the procedures in a consistent and effective manner. Future studies will examine the effectiveness of the intervention.