A nurse is explaining how the relapse cycle works to a group of hospitalized clients who have co-occurring disorders involving cognitive disorders and alcoholism. Which of the following statements should the nurse use in her explanation?

Question

A) "Once you are discharged, there is a tendency to use alcohol rather than your prescribed medications to self-medicate your psychiatric symptoms. This allows your psychiatric symptoms to surface once again, and they, in turn, lead to re-hospitalization. Your symptoms are again controlled with medications until you are discharged and the cycle starts all over again."
B) "Your alcoholism causes you to hallucinate, and you need to take prescribed medications to control the hallucinations. Once you try to stop drinking and stay abstinent, your hallucinations disappear; consequently, you stop taking your prescribed medications because they're gone. Then, you celebrate with alcohol, and this triggers a relapse; the alcoholism causes hallucinations and the whole thing starts over again."
C) "Your dependence on alcohol and your psychiatric illness are unrelated. Being psychotic does not cause alcoholism, and alcoholism does not cause psychosis. It all boils down to medication compliance."
D) "The cycle is triggered by repeated attempts to stop drinking. Without the levels of alcohol your system has come to tolerate, you begin to develop psychiatric symptoms. Then you have to be hospitalized and treated for your psychosis once again. Everything is fine until the next time you try to stop drinking, and then the cycle repeats itself."

Answer 1

A