Substance abuse and mental illness go hand-in-hand?

I found an interesting article from EBSCO called Prevalence and Impact of Substance Use among Emerging Adults with Serious Mental Health Conditions written by Ashli Sheidow, Michael Mc Cart, Kristyn Zajac and Maryann Davis and it was published in the Psychiatric Rehabilitation Journal.  I thought this particular article would be beneficial to me because the content of the article discusses the correlation between mental illness and substance abuse, which is what I am planning to do my research paper on.

            The article’s main point is there is a correlation between mental illness and substance abuse especially in young people between the ages of 18- 25.  There are a number of factors that can be attributed for such dual diagnoses such as family history of substance abuse, low levels of family support, single family homes, low parental monitoring and negative peer groups.  According to the article co- occurring substance abuse and mental illness are more difficult to treat together than they are alone.  The treatments for substance abuse and mental illness are often complicated because there aren’t any treatments specifically designed for these problems.  Also, treatment outcomes tend to be worse for people with both mental illness and substance abuse problems because they have an increased risk of relapsing.

            I liked this article it gave me information for my paper as well as opened my eyes to how serious of a problem mental illness and substance abuse problems really are.  This article will most definitely be a source that I will be using for my paper.  This article was useful to me because it provided facts about substance abuse and mental illness as well as discussed treatment options.  One weakness of this article is that it can be difficult to follow because unclear on why some treatment options have a low success rate.  It would be beneficial if it discussed in greater detail why certain treatments work and why others do not.