Objective: To identify whether mental health wellbeing, age, gender or recent substance use pattern affected completion rates of a dual diagnosis inpatient program.
Method: This retrospective cohort study reviewed medical records of patients admitted between October 2018 and December 2021 of Westside Lodge, a dual diagnosis inpatient program. Demographic information, mental health screening tool results (BASIS-24) and self-reported substance use data were accessed from the patients' electronic medical records.
Results: 181 admissions were included in the study, of which the majority were male (53.6%). Recently used common substances were alcohol (52%), cannabis (40%) and methamphetamine (43%). None of the factors studied demonstrated any statistically significant effect on the likelihood of program completion.
Conclusion: This study found that age, gender, mental health wellbeing and recent substances used were not associated with the likelihood of completing inpatient dual diagnosis treatment though further high-powered studies are required to validate these claims.
Keywords: dual diagnosis; inpatient treatment; mental health; substance use disorder.