Dual Disorder Patients: Clinical and Therapeutical Aspects

Dear Colleagues,

We are organizing a Special Issue on “Dual Disorder Patients: Clinical and Therapeutic Aspects” in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health. The venue is a peer-reviewed scientific journal that publishes articles and communications in the interdisciplinary area of environmental health sciences and public health. For detailed information on the journal, we refer you to http://www.mdpi.com/journal/ijerph. 

Dual Disorder is a term applied to people who have a Substance Use Disorder and another co-occurring mental illness. It is related to interacting neurobiological and environmental factors involved in behaviours of substance and non-substance associated disorders.

Even if it is clear that patients with Substance Use Disorders present frequent psychiatric comorbidity, researchers in this field remain insufficient to prove the existence of clear progression between substance abuse and other mental illnesses.

Patients with mental disorders, including addictions, should have access to a multidisciplinary care model that integrates and coordinates the mental health network and the addiction network, thereby avoiding the so-called “wrong door syndrome”.

The mental/brain disorder model of addictions has yielded to the development of effective preventive measures, treatment interventions, and public health policies. However, the concept of substance use disorders and dual disorders as brain diseases continues to be questioned, possibly because the neurobiological basis of these compulsive behaviours has not been fully explained.

This Special Issue is open to any subject area related to the clinical and therapeutic aspects of Dual Disorder patients. The listed topics suggest just a few of the many possibilities.

Prof. Dr. Icro Maremmani
Dr. Matteo Pacini
Dr. Angelo G. I. Maremmani
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-anonymized peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2500 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.