Comorbid Schizophrenia and Substance Use—Moving Toward Improved Functional Outcomes

By Douglas L. Noordsy, MD | November 8, 2012

comorbid schizophrenia and substance abuse

Can antipsychotics impact substance use or vocational outcomes in patients with schizophrenia? Dr Douglas L. Noordsy, Associate Professor of Psychiatry and Director of Psychosis Services at Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth, New Hampshire, will be answering that question and more during his presentation with the same title at the 2012 US Psychiatric and Mental Health Congress in San Diego.

Here, Dr. Noordsy shares some highlights of the presentation and sheds some light on the pharmacological and nonpharmacological strategies to treat and manage comorbid schizophrenia and addiction as well as strategies to help improve functional outcomes.

Comorbid Schizophrenia and Substance Use
Comorbid Schizophrenia and Substance Use
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by Bryan Krumm | January 17, 2013 1:31 PM EST

A good place to start would be to stop thinking of cannabis as only a drug of abuse and begin recognizing that it may have significant therapeutic value in treating both positive and negative symptoms of schizophrenia. Schizophrenic patients who use cannabis tend to have superior neurocognitive function when compared to non-using schizophrenic patients. I have seen significant benefits from cannabis in my schizophrenic patients who have co-morbid PTSD and are in the medical cannabis program.

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