SUBSTANCE ABUSE LEADS TO SCHIZOPHRENIA
Stating that substance abuse is always accompanied by a psychiatric illness, experts said that substance abuse leads to schizophrenia and psychotic attacks, especially if there is a genetic predisposition.
Emphasizing that substances that make the person addicted increase dopamine in the brain, experts said, "Increased dopamine in the brain causes many other psychiatric diseases, especially schizophrenia or the disease we call psychosis is associated with increased dopamine in the brain."
Psychiatrist Asst. Assoc. Prof. Dr. Onur Noyan from Üsküdar University NPISTANBUL Hospital pointed out that substance use is often not experienced alone and that there is definitely an accompanying psychiatric disorder.
Asst. Assoc. Prof. Dr. Onur Noyan said, "Substance use and other psychiatric diseases are very often seen together. An anxiety disorder accompanies substance use in 60% of substance users, depression in 45%, and a psychotic disorder or a disease we call schizophrenia in 40%."
THERE IS AN EGG-CHICKEN RELATIONSHIP
Stating that the question of "whether a person becomes addicted due to psychiatric diseases or whether psychiatric diseases are seen due to addiction" is similar to the egg and chicken relationship, Assist. Assoc. Prof. Dr. Onur Noyan said the following
"There is actually a very serious egg and chicken relationship. Sometimes the underlying psychiatric illness can lead to substance abuse. Sometimes substance abuse can cause additional psychiatric diseases. Sometimes two different diseases appear at the same time independently of each other due to a biological and genetic predisposition. Sometimes psychiatric illnesses occur unnoticed in the individual. Since the anxiety disorder, anxiety disorder or depression in the individual occurs without the person realizing it, the person may turn to substance use in order to cope with these feelings or thoughts."
SUBSTANCE USE INCREASES DOPAMINE
Noting that this situation is valid in all types of addiction, but it is much more important especially in substance use, Asst. Assoc. Prof. Dr. Onur Noyan said, "Because the substances we call drugs increase dopamine in the brain. Increased dopamine in the brain causes many other psychiatric diseases, especially schizophrenia or the disease we call psychosis is associated with increased dopamine in the brain. In all recent studies, it has been determined that half of schizophrenia patients are people who have met and used substances in their past adolescence."
SINGLE DOSE USE MAY CAUSE AN ATTACK
Stating that if a person has a genetic predisposition to a psychiatric disease, the emergence of that disease can accelerate if the substance used is used even once, Asst. Assoc. Prof. Dr. Onur Noyan warned, "In fact, it actually causes a kind of triggering, if that person has a genetic burden of schizophrenia, a single dose of substance use can cause that person to suddenly have a psychotic attack or schizophrenia attack."
Stating that the history of the disease in any person in the past life tree is of course very important, Asst. Assoc. Prof. Dr. Onur Noyan said, "If there is a history of schizophrenia in the first degree relatives of the person, the risk of that person having schizophrenia increases several times compared to the society. Drugs can trigger this, but beyond these, we have a biological genetic code that we call a genetic code, even if none of our family members have it, if there is a genetic code of predisposition to schizophrenia, cannabis can trigger it and cause it to suddenly appear."
ADDICTION AND PSYCHIATRIC DISEASES SHOULD BE TREATED AT THE SAME TIME
Emphasizing that one of the biggest problems in our country is that substance addiction and other co-psychiatric diseases cannot be treated at the same time in state-affiliated AMATEMs, Asst. Assoc. Prof. Onur Noyan said, "If a person has schizophrenia and concomitant substance abuse, he/she is treated as an inpatient in the general psychiatry ward. In this case, the person stays away from addiction treatment. In our country, we need combined wards where both diseases are treated at the same time. The most important feature of our hospital is that both diseases can be treated at the same time."