Polysubstance was used in the
American Psychiatric Association's Diagnostic and Statistical Manual for Mental Disorders (DSM-IV 1994) to refer to three or more drugs (including alcohol) to which an individual has become dependent (i.e., meets the diagnostic criteria for
substance dependence
Substance dependence, also known as drug dependence, is a biopsychological situation whereby an individual's functionality is dependent on the necessitated re-consumption of a psychoactive substance because of an adaptive state that has develope ...
). The criteria were changed in the
DSM-5
The ''Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition'' (DSM-5), is the 2013 update to the ''Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders'', the taxonomic and diagnostic tool published by the American Psychiatric ...
. In the DSM-IV
nosology
Nosology () is the branch of medical science that deals with the classification of diseases. Fully classifying a medical condition requires knowing its cause (and that there is only one cause), the effects it has on the body, the symptoms that ...
,
polysubstance dependence
Polysubstance dependence refers to a type of substance use disorder in which an individual uses at least three different classes of substances indiscriminately and does not have a favorite substance that qualifies for dependence on its own. Altho ...
(diagnostic code 304.80) indicated that the use of any one of the substances did not meet the diagnostic criteria for
substance dependence
Substance dependence, also known as drug dependence, is a biopsychological situation whereby an individual's functionality is dependent on the necessitated re-consumption of a psychoactive substance because of an adaptive state that has develope ...
while the combined use of the drugs did meet substance dependence diagnostic criteria.
Two research studies
[Martinotti G; Carli V; Tedeschi D; Di Giannantonio M; Roy A; Janiri L; Sarchiapone, M. (2009). Mono- and polysubstance dependent subjects differ on social factors, childhood trauma, personality, suicidal behaviour, and comorbid Axis I diagnoses. Addictive Behaviors, 34(9), 790-793.] sought to determine if polysubstance dependence patients differ in any important ways from patients with a single-drug substance dependence but each study defined polysubstance dependence differently, making comparisons difficult.
References
{{Reflist
External links
Finding Substance Abuse Treatment - General InformationSubstance Abuse Treatment Locator
Substance-related disorders