Comorbid Alcohol and Substance Abuse Dependence in Depression: Impact on the Outcome of Antidepressant Treatment

Major depressive disorder often co-occurs with substance use disorders, especially alcohol use disorders, and the course of each of these problems seems be complicated by the other. Diagnosing and treating these patients is challenging. A significant difficulty for clinicians is deciding whether to treat a mood episode in a patient who has current substance use or a substance use disorder, and what is the optimal treatment for that patient. This article discusses the prevalence of depressive and substance use disorder, the course of illness of comorbid depression and substance use disorders, and treatment response.