Analysis of dual diagnoses in the practice of the children's and adolescents' outpatient addiction service. The study design
Abstract
BACKGROUND: The World Health Organization defined psychiatric comorbidity as the co-occurrence of multiple symptoms or mental disorders in an individual. The prevalence of mental disorders among adolescents with addiction-related conditions ranges from 35% to 83%.
AIMS: We are going to present a systematic literature review covering dual diagnoses among children and adolescents. We want to identify the prevalence of comorbidities involving substance use disorders or pathological gambling and other mental disorders among the patients of the Outpatient Addiction Treatment Service for Children and Adolescents and identify the pattern of use.
METHODS: A systematic review of dual diagnoses among children and adolescents will be produced first. The study will follow the PRISMA guidelines and protocol.
For an article to be found eligible it must have been published within the last ten years. Our assumption is that several categories of data will arise - prevalence data, data describing the nature of disorders other than those related to addiction, and data describing a pattern of use.
Then in the proper research we analysed data of all the patients who have sought the services of the Outpatient Addiction Treatment Service for Children and Adolescents. The data will be extracted from the FONS system which is implemented at the outpatient service.
This data has not been collected since the beginning and thus provides additional input on the participants for the period 2017-2021. The data will be used for descriptive statistics which will make it possible for us to present the prevalence of dual diagnoses in the population under scrutiny.
Non-parametric statistical methods were chosen for further analysis describing the nature of disorders other than those related to addiction, and data describing a pattern of use. DISCUSSION: The result of the systematic review is testifying high prevalence of dual diagnoses in the target group.
We expect that our own research will testify high prevalence in patients in outpatient service.