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Substance Abuse in the Affective Disorders

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Substance Abuse and Psychopathology

Part of the book series: Applied Clinical Psychology ((ACPH))

Abstract

Common sense suggests that there might be a relationship between affective disorder and substance abuse. That drugs might be sought and abused by individuals who are experiencing unhappiness or dysphoria is consistent with popular notions about drug-taking behavior. There is, in fact, a great deal of evidence for a rather strong association between alcoholism and affective disorder, though by no means as simple or as well understood as the popular commonsense notion would suggest. On the other hand, there is very little evidence of any particular association between other drugs and affective disorder. This may in part be due to lack of study or to the relative newness of other drugs of abuse, but the discrepancy is striking and is in itself an interesting finding. In any event, there is good reason to consider alcohol and other drugs of abuse separately with respect to their relationship to affective disorder.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Psychiatry Service, Kansas City VA Medical Center, 4801 Linwood Boulevard, Kansas City, Missouri, 64128, USA

    Demmie Mayfield

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  1. Veterans Administration Medical Center, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA

    Arthur I. Alterman

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Mayfield, D. (1985). Substance Abuse in the Affective Disorders. In: Alterman, A.I. (eds) Substance Abuse and Psychopathology. Applied Clinical Psychology. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4899-3641-7_4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4899-3641-7_4

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