Comorbidity of mental disorders with substance misuse

The title of this editorial evokes the image of a patient with a psychosis, usually schizo phrenia, who abuses or is dependent upon alcohol or an illicit drug. The suffering of these individuals and their families is un deniable, as are the difficulties that mental health and addiction services face in helping them. None the less, this form of comorbid ity has overshadowed more prevalent and remediable patterns of comorbidity between substance misuse and mental disorders (Hall, 1996).

Long-term cannabis use and mental healthy

The mental health consequences of the daily or near-dailyuseof cannabisoveryearsand decades remain uncertain, and are likely to remain so for some time given the difficul ties involved in investigating them. Never theless, there is sufficient evidence that its effects are neither as benign as proponents of its legalisation often argue, nor as malign as some partisans of continued prohibition claim (Hall et a!, 1994).