Psychiatric Disorders Among American Indian vs. Other Patients With Psychoactive Substance Use Disorders

Abstract

In this study 100 American Indian (AI) patients and 200 non‐AI patients with a psychoactive substance use disorder (PSUD) were studied with special reference to associated psychiatric disorders. Current Axis I diagnoses, previous psychiatric treatment, and family history of psychiatric disorder were compared among these two groups. AI patients from a university hospital clinical population had excess numbers of organic mental disorder (OMD), including both acute OMD (i.e., delirium tremens and alcoholic hallucinosis) and chronic OMD (i.e., alcohol amnestic disorder, alcohol dementia, and trauma‐induced OMD). Overall, “dual diagnosis” was more frequent among the AI patients, due primarily to the excess incidence of OMD. The rate of other psychiatric diagnoses was comparable between the two groups. Within the non‐OMD psychiatric diagnoses, a few differences did occur. AI patients manifested increased anxiety disorders, whereas non‐AI patients had increased eating disorders. Previous psychiatric treatment and family history of psychiatric disorder did not differ between AI and non‐AI patients. Treatment implications are based on these data combined with reports from the literature.