Most people with addiction also have a mental health condition. That doesn’t make recovery harder — but it makes treatment different.
Roughly half of people who enter treatment for substance use disorder also meet criteria for at least one mental health diagnosis. The most common pairings: addiction with depression, anxiety disorders, PTSD, bipolar disorder, and ADHD.
For decades, the standard approach was to treat the two separately — send someone to rehab first, then refer them to a psychiatrist afterward. The data is clear that this doesn’t work. The two conditions interact: untreated mental health symptoms drive relapse, and active substance use makes mental health symptoms worse. Treating them in sequence keeps the person stuck in the cycle.
At Paramount, dual diagnosis is integrated by default. Psychiatric evaluation happens in the first 72 hours. Medication management is built into your care plan. The clinician treating your addiction is in regular contact with the clinician treating your mental health — often, they’re the same person.
What we treat alongside addiction
The most common co-occurring conditions we see:
Depression and persistent depressive disorder. Often present from before substance use began, sometimes triggered by it. Treated with a combination of therapy (CBT, behavioral activation) and SSRIs or other antidepressants where indicated.
Anxiety disorders. Generalized anxiety, panic disorder, and social anxiety frequently underlie alcohol and benzodiazepine misuse. We treat anxiety without prescribing benzodiazepines except in narrow, short-term clinical situations.
Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Especially common in opioid use disorder. EMDR (eye movement desensitization and reprocessing) and cognitive processing therapy (CPT) are the evidence-based front-line treatments, both available through our trauma-informed team.
Bipolar disorder. Often misdiagnosed as depression for years. Requires careful medication management with mood stabilizers — and a coordinated team that won’t withhold treatment because of stigma about the diagnosis.
ADHD. Common in stimulant use disorder. We treat ADHD with non-stimulant medications (atomoxetine, bupropion) and cognitive behavioral approaches; stimulant prescribing happens only under careful clinical conditions when warranted.
The work itself
Dual diagnosis care looks similar to standard addiction treatment in many ways — individual therapy, group, family work, medication management — but the clinical lens is wider. Every treatment decision considers both conditions: how the medication for one might interact with recovery from the other, how the therapy modality addresses both, how the discharge plan supports continued treatment for both.
This is the kind of treatment that’s hard to find at an affordable price point. Most facilities either do addiction or mental health well, not both. We built Paramount around integrating them because the data demands it.
What it costs
Dual diagnosis care is covered by Medicaid (Health First Colorado), Medicare, and commercial insurance under behavioral health benefits — same coverage as addiction treatment alone. We verify benefits at no cost.