Psychotic Disorders and Substance Use Disorders

The comorbidity of psychotic and substance use disorders (SUDs) is a major issue in mental health because of its high frequency and poor prognosis. Moreover, it is often neglected both for the difficulty to assess SUDs in psychotic patients and for scarce attitude to evaluate and treat substance misuse by psychiatric service staff. On the other hand, psychotic patients with SUDs can receive inadequate treatment for psychosis by SUD services for similar reasons. Assessing and treating this comorbidity require the knowledge and the integration of specific tools and interventions that should be tailored toward patients’ clinical condition and that can be difficult to manage in daily clinical practice.