Co-Occurring Disorders

A co-occurring disorder is when an adolescent struggles with substance use and a psychiatric disorder at the same time. The majority of adolescents who struggle with substance use have co-occurring disorders. Out of the 2768 individuals who participated in the SAMHSA/CAST funded studies, 70% also had at least one co-occurring mental health disorder. Research supports the use of several A-CRA procedures to treat substance use and commonly co-occurring psyhciatric disorders. A-CRA is very similar to two existing frameworks for treating adolescents with co-occurring disorders, cognitive behavioral therapy and family therapy. A-CRA use applies many of the same treatment techniques found in these interventions proven effective with other (non-substance use) psychiatric disorders. In the study involving homeless youth, A-CRA reduced depression more than the control group (40% vs. 23%).