Comorbidity is a medical term used to describe a patient who has multiple chronic health issues in their past medical history. It is extremely important that a healthcare provider (especially those in the hospital caring for an acute episode) knows every chronic health issue of their patient. Knowing these comorbidities allows the healthcare team to identify how the current health issue is impacting the patient and how the comorbidities affect the current illness as well. This allows the Continue Reading ...

Depression and substance abuse are two conditions that are often closely related to one another — in fact, about one in three people with depression also struggle with substance abuse. Most people recognize depression as a serious problem and can, at the very least, empathize with it. Substance abuse and addiction are serious mental health problems themselves, although sometimes others don't understand this and blame the victim. As you'll see, though, the two problems can combine Continue Reading ...