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Article: Substance use in psychosis: what can be done about it?(Australia)
- Article from:
- Psychiatry, Psychology and Law
- Article date:
- April 1, 2003
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2003 Australian Academic Press Pty. Ltd. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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The use of alcohol and illicit substances is common among patients with schizophrenia. Whilst it is generally believed that the use of such agents is detrimental to mental health, and can worsen the longitudinal illness trajectory, little systematic research has attempted to understand motivations for use in this population, nor tried to use such knowledge to inform treatment. We report here a two-part program aimed at addressing this gap. Part I was a survey of 69 psychosis patient using a series of structured measures to understand motivation for substance use. Part 2 was a group-based intervention using a harm-minimisation approach, informed by the results from Part I, ...