Addressing the Crisis: Developing Evidence-Based Treatment for Individuals with Co-Occurring Substance Use Disorders and Psychosis in BC

Indicators of harmful use of non-prescribed addictive substances—reflected in healthcare visits, hospitalizations, and deaths—are rising in Canada, signaling an urgent crisis. Addressing this issue requires a focus on identifying and supporting demographic groups that are disproportionately impacted. One notably vulnerable group is individuals with psychosis, who show alarmingly high rates of substance use disorders (SUD). Substance use relapse in this population is associated with increased hospitalization, incarceration, and a heightened risk of early death due to opioid overdoses, suicide, or infectious and cardiovascular diseases. However, individuals with SUD and psychotic illnesses are often excluded from clinical research, resulting in a lack of evidence to guide best practices for prescribing antipsychotics, SUD treatments, and other psychotropic medications. This project aims to develop guidance by analyzing real-world clinical evaluations, diagnostic data, and prescribing patterns and linking them to outcomes such as substance use relapse, medication side-effects, and healthcare utilization using electronic medical records along post-discharge data from two provincial centers in BC.