Objectives: The main objective of this study was to analyse the cocaine addict subgroup from the Madrid study of prevalence of dual disorders in community mental health and substance misuse services.
Material and methods: The sample consisted of 837 outpatients from Madrid, Spain. We compared 488 subjects who had a lifetime diagnosis of cocaine abuse or dependence, and 222 subjects who did not have a cocaine substance use disorder. We used the Mini International Neuropsychiatric Interview to evaluate axis I mental disorders, and the Personality Disorder Questionnaire to evaluate personality disorders.
Results: Almost three-quarters (73.4%) of cocaine addicts had a current dual disorder. Most prevalent were mood and anxiety disorders. Almost half (49.6%) had a personality disorder. Most of them (94.9%) had other substance use disorders. Cocaine addicts did not have higher prevalence rates of dual pathology than addicts with no cocaine abuse or dependence. Cocaine addicts were associated to a diagnosis of antisocial personality disorder, agoraphobia, and post-traumatic stress disorder, and they had an early age of onset of alcohol and cannabis use.
Conclusions: Dual pathology is no higher in cocaine addicts in treatment than in addicts who do not use cocaine, however cocaine addicts started other drugs earlier, and were associated with specific mental disorders.
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