Steps to Accurate Diagnosis of Substance Abuse  Steps to
Accurate Diagnosis of Substance Abuse  Patience is the virtue
when it comes to accurate diagnosis and treatment of substance
dependence, according to Marc A. Schuckit, M.D., professor of
psychiatry at the University of California at San Diego and
director of alcohol and drug abuse treatment programs at the San
Diego Veterans Affairs Medical Center and Scripps Memorial
Hospital.  Because alcohol- and drug-dependent patients tend to
develop high rates of symptoms usually associated with common
psychiatric syndromes, practitioners often fail to diagnose
substance dependence and instead jump to treat more familiar
disorders. The risk that such circumstances will occur is
understandable given statistics that two of every three alcohol-
or drug-dependent individuals meet the criteria for psychiatric
disorders (mainly other substance-use disorders and antisocial
personality disorders) and one of every three such individuals
meets the criteria for anxiety or de