Drug and Alcohol Abuse: A Clinical Guide to Diagnosis and Treatment

This year, I needed a comprehensive text to help me put together a lecture on substance use disorders for psychiatrists taking their board exams. It had been some time since I, a psychologist who conducts research on co-occurring disorders, had updated myself generally on current knowledge regarding substance use disorders. This text was very useful for this purpose; I can see it being a useful reference guide for medical practioners concerned with treating those with substance use disorders. I found Schuckit's classification of substances by their effects (depressants, stimulants, hallucinogens) rather than trying to present information on similar-acting drugs individually (cocaine, amphetamines) particularly useful. The chapters are concise and well-written and loaded with details as noted by the previous reviewer. That said, I gave it 4 instead of 5 stars because as a comprehensive guide, it gives relatively short shrift to psychosocial treatments. Whereas each chapter on drug classes goes into step-by-step detail about, for example, treating symptoms of acute withdrawal or intoxication for a particular drug class, there is only a single chapter at the end of the text regarding psychosocial treatments. That chapter is too short and lacks sufficient detail to cover recent developments such as the inclusion of evidence-based practices (e.g., motivational interviewing, trauma reduction therapies) into many treatment regimens. And although published in 2005, knowledge on pharmacological treatments in conjunction with psychosocial treatments such as the results of the recent COMBINE study (acamprosate and naltrexone plus CBT for treating alcoholism) are not included in detail. To be fair, research is moving far too fast for any text to be completely up-to-date by the time of publication. However, this exclusion simply calls attention to the lack of coverage of psychosocial treatments generally. In short then, this text is recommended as a primer and a guide to medical management of substance use disorders and will be of particular use to those working in emergency rooms or detoxification centers. Those working in longer term programs needing guidance on the management of addiction disorders through the post-acute and relapse management phases should consider a different text.