Addiction and Dual Diagnosis Treatment

Addiction is a complex psychiatric condition that can have devastating consequences for both the individual with an addiction and those close to them.

Fortunately, there are many effective treatments for addictive disorders and full recovery from these conditions is possible.

Comprehensive Addiction Treatment

At Camden Center, patients have access to the most comprehensive addiction treatment available, provided by a team of addiction specialists that includes psychiatrists, psychotherapists, primary care physicians, family therapists, nutritionists, occupational therapists, and naturopathic doctors.

Dr. Jason Schiffman, MD, MA, MBA, the founder and director of Camden Center, is board certified in both psychiatry and addiction medicine and is also the founder and medical director of the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) Dual Diagnosis Program. He has developed the unique treatment approach used at Camden Center to address the many domains of functionality and health impacted by addiction and provide patients with an opportunity to fully recover.

Camden Center works closely with the UCLA and Stanford University Addiction Medicine Fellowship Programs, and offers treatment that combines the most up-to-date, evidence-based medical treatments for addiction with the psychotherapeutic, behavioral, and community-based modalities that are needed to help individuals recovering from addiction completely heal.

Because not all individuals respond the same way to all therapies, treatment in each level of care at Camden Center is individualized and planned collaboratively every week to find the most effective, personalized combination of therapies for each patient.

What is Dual Diagnosis?

Addictive disorders are usually solutions that have become their own problem. The types of substances and behaviors to which people become addicted are all effective at blocking uncomfortable feelings, and what becomes an addiction typically begins as a coping mechanism to manage chronic emotional pain.

The effective treatment of addiction requires also healing the source of the pain that the addictive substance or behavior was serving to diminish. Without addressing the underlying problem for which the substance or behavior was initially a solution, it is difficult for individuals with addiction to attain long-term recovery.

The term “dual diagnosis” refers to the co-occurrence of an addictive disorder with another psychiatric condition, such as a depressive disorder, anxiety disorder, or bipolar disorder. The most recent data suggests that approximately 40% of individuals with a substance use disorder fall into this category.

Because the substance use or behaviors which develop into an addiction typically start off as a solution to another underlying emotional problem, the percentage of individuals for whom underlying psychological issues play a role in their addiction is likely much higher than 40% and may be nearly all individuals with addiction.

While “dual diagnosis” used to be considered the exceptional case, it is now recognized that the co-occurrence of mental health issues among people with addictive disorders is the norm. Additionally, there is typically a mutually reinforcing relationship between addiction and mental health issues, with the addiction worsening the underlying mental health condition and vice versa.

The Camden Model

The clinical framework used at Camden Center involves investigation of the developmental, familial, and biological origins of addiction and takes account of the entire context in which an addiction developed rather than focusing narrowly on just the addictive substance or behavior itself.

By addressing the addiction, the emotional pain the addiction was originally numbing, and the developmental origins of that pain, treatment at Camden Center provides patients with addictive disorders the opportunity to attain true recovery.

For more information about Camden Center's expert addiction and dual diagnosis treatment in Los Angeles or San Francisco, contact us by phone or online today.