Abstract copyright UK Data Service and data collection copyright owner.
Individuals with comorbid substance misuse and mental health problems are often the most vulnerable and socially excluded members of society. This retrospective case control study collected data on socio-economic and deprivation factors and service use of clients with and without comorbid mental health and substance misuse problems. These were clients of Adult Mental Health (AMH) and specialist Drug and Alcohol Services (DAS) engaged with a mental health trust in East Anglia in 1999-2000. The study aimed to provide information on the characteristics of those with comorbid mental health and substance misuse problems to enable local services to identify 'vulnerable clients' and to plan appropriate interventions and provision for this group. The study used data collected from medical records to construct an anonymised database of a sample of comorbid clients and also of two control groups, one of individuals with a substance misuse problem only and one of individuals with a mental health problem only. This database was then used to identify differences between comorbid individuals and those with a drug or alcohol problem only and those with a mental health problem only, with a particular emphasis on socio-economic characteristics and service use.
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The dataset contains information on a sample of clients (n=590) from a mental health trust, collected from patient records and anonymised against a unique identification number. The file includes 91 variables, providing information on demographic and social characteristics (e.g. age, gender, marital status, ethnicity, educational level, employment), family background (e.g. history of mental illness and substance misuse, vulnerabilities in childhood), medical/psychiatric history and substances used, forensic history, and details of engagement with services.
This dataset arose from preliminary work which identified a population of clients of a mental health trust in East Anglia. From this original pool of clients, all comorbid cases were used and matched with 'controls' with a single diagnosis. This created four distinct groups, composed of Drug and Alcohol service (DAS) clients who were singly or dually diagnosed, and Adult Mental Health (AMH) service clients who were singly or dually diagnosed. Clients were case- matched on the following characteristics: comorbid clients (cases) and singly diagnosed clients (controls) were matched on gender, age (+/- 10 years for the DAS clients and +/- 6 years for AMH clients). Comorbid DAS clients were also case matched with singly diagnosed controls depending on whether they were drug, alcohol or poly-substance users.
Transcription of existing materials
a data collection form was specifically constructed and used to collect existing information from medical records.
