%0 Journal Article
%T The mental status of 1090 heroin addicts at entry into treatment: should depression be considered a 'dual diagnosis'?
%A Icro Maremmani
%A Matteo Pacini
%A Pier Pani
%A Giulio Perugi
%A Joseph Deltito
%A Hagop Akiskal
%J Annals of General Psychiatry
%D 2007
%I BioMed Central
%R 10.1186/1744-859x-6-31
%X We studied the mental status of 1090 heroin addicts (831 males and 259 females aged between 16 and 51 years) at the beginning of treatment, and its relationship to relevant demographic and clinical data through the use of standardised instruments.A total of 506 (46.42%) heroin addicts showed depressive-anxious symptomatology, 421 (38.62%) had psychomotor excitement and 163 (14.95%) demonstrated a psychotic state. Patients with depressive-anxious symptomatology on the whole had a less severe addictive illness compared to those demonstrating excited and psychotic symptoms. The presence of depressive-anxious features was felt to not necessarily be indicative of the presence of a dual diagnosis.The presence of depressive-anxious symptomatology in the clinical presentation in heroin addicts appears to be unrelated to 'dual diagnosis'.Drug addiction is definable as an illness [1] with core signs and symptoms (craving and relapsing behaviour) pertaining to the field of psychiatry and behavioural science [2]. Moreover, psychiatric symptoms are often prominent in states of intoxication and withdrawal, and presentations post-withdrawal are often characterised by persistent discomfort. Also, autonomous psychiatric impairment resulting from independent brain dispositions are often coupled to addiction, which makes the case one of dual diagnosis [3,4]. On the whole, psychiatric symptoms are the rule rather than the exception among heroin addicts seeking any kind of treatment, but the symptomatology that we often attribute to a comorbid mental disorder may be sometimes just be a consequence of substance use and not actually indicative of the presence of an additive psychiatric disorder.We pose the following questions: what psychiatric mental symptom clusters occur in heroin addiction, what is the prevalence of a depressive mental cluster, and what should be considered a genuine 'dual diagnosis'?Our study aims to provide new information about: (1) the mental status of heroin addic
%U http://www.annals-general-psychiatry.com/content/6/1/31