COSIG CONFERENCE BROCHURE.pdf - Drexel University College ...

COSIG Co-Occurring Disorders Conference, Hershey PA, May 15-17, 2006
Co-occurring Disorders
Co-occurring Disorders
Each disorder has symptoms that
interfere with that person’s ability to
function effectively and how they relate to
themselves and others.
• The disorders may exacerbate each
other, and each disorder predisposes to
relapse in the other disease.
• The symptoms can overlap and even
mask each other, making diagnosis and
treatment more difficult.
Co-occurring Disorders
• A person may sincerely try to recover
from one illness and not acknowledge the
other.
• As a person neglects his or her mental
illness, that illness may recur.
• This recurrence may lead an individual
to use or misuse alcohol or drugs.
Consequences of
No Treatment/No Recovery
• Unnecessary disability
• Unemployment
• Marital/family problems
• Chemical dependence
• Homelessness
• Continued instability
• Incarceration
•Suicide
Costs
• The economic cost of untreated mental
illness is more than 100 Billion dollars each
year in the United States. (NIMH)
• Estimated direct (hospitalization, medication)
and indirect (family care-giving, lost wages)
cost of severe mental illness is
$81,000,000,000 annually.
• The economic cost of untreated chemical
dependency was $276 billion dollars in 1995 in
the U.S. (NIDA, 1998)
Costs
• Left untreated, depression is as costly as heart
disease or AIDs to the the U.S. economy,
costing over $43.7 billion in absenteeism from
work (over 200 million days lost from work each
year), lost productivity and direct treatment
costs.
• The annual economic cost of depression in
1995 was $600 per depressed worker: one third
of these costs are for treatment, and 72% are
related to absenteeism and lost productivity.
• Almost 15% of those suffering from severe
depression will commit suicide. (DSM-IV, 1994)
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