Objective

To analyze the impact of Dual Diagnosis on patient’s work capacity and verify if the professional activity sector matters. Dual Diagnosis is defined by the coexistence of an Addiction and another psychiatric disorder.

Methodology

All patients admitted for inpatient treatment at Alcohol and New Addiction’s Treatment Unit from Lisbon’s Psychiatric Hospital Center, for six months, between 1st November 2021 and 30th April 2022, were selected and screened for sociodemographic and clinical characteristics (age, gender, education level, professional situation, and activity sector at admission as well as main admission diagnosis and other psychiatric comorbidities). Retrospective observative analysis focused on patient’s work capacity was conducted between patients who had been diagnosed with an Addiction Disorder and patients with Dual Diagnosis.

Results

Our sample had 78 patients and an average age of 51 years. From those, 31 had diagnosis of Addiction Disorder and 47 had Dual Diagnosis. Only 27% patients were still active at admission, with 15% being with temporary incapacity certificate, 41% being unemployed and 17% retired. A significant part of our sample worked in accommodation, transportation, and food services activities (29%), construction sector (19%) and in healthcare, education, and social work activities (17%). The unemployment rates between patients with an Addiction Disorder and Dual Diagnosis were similar. However, 39% of patients with an Addiction Disorder were active while only 19% with Dual Diagnosis were in the same state. Also of interest was that 34% of those with Dual Diagnosis worked in accommodation, transportation, and food services activities.

Conclusions

These results show that Dual Diagnosis may have a significant impact in the working capacity and suggest that there are important differences between professional activity sectors in patients with or without dual diagnosis.

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