Substance misuse/dependency alcohol

Also falling within the scope of modern psychiatric diagnostic systems are organic mental disorders (e.g. dementia in Alzheimer s disease), disorders due to substance misuse (e.g. alcohol and opiate dependence—see Chapter 10), personality disorders, disorders of childhood and adolescence (e.g. attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder, Tourette s syndrome) and mental retardation (learning disabilities). 

When diagnosing a substance use disorder, it is named in accordance with the substance that is being misused. Patients can be said to have alcohol abuse or dependence, cocaine abuse or dependence, opiate abuse or dependence, and so forth. In severe cases when the patient is misusing several substances, (s)he is diagnosed with polysubstance dependence. The complete list of DSM-IV substance use disorders is shown in Table 6.3. Although the diagnostic criteria for the specific substance use disorders are uniform from substance to substance, certain features of the addiction are specihc to the substance being misused. The typical age of onset, the course of the disorder, and the treatment of the disorder vary by substance. Nevertheless, many features of substance abuse and substance dependence are similar across substances. 

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