One strength of the current study lies in the fact that the current (12-month) co-occurrence of substance and mood or anxiety disorders was considered. Twelve-month data were used to minimize recall bias and maximize clinical relevance. Previous research has consistently indicated that SUD and mood or anxiety disorders have strong associations when considered on a lifetime basis. In providing explanations and implications of the lifetime associations relating SUD to mood and anxiety disorders recent work separating past and current disorders has demonstrated that the intoxication or withdrawal effects fail to account for the associations entirely (Hasin et al., 2002), as implicated in earlier studies (Kadden RM, et al., 1995; Schuckit MA et al., 1997). Nevertheless, twelve-month comorbidity has been shown to have greater impact on affected individuals and treatment systems (Scott KM, et al., 2006), and has also been suggested to be more strongly associated with disability and poorer treatment outcomes than lifetime comorbidity (Burns et al., 2002). Additionally, we were able to examine prevalence rates and comorbidity pattern for specific mood and anxiety disorders, rather than those of the broad categories of mood and anxiety disorders.
