Many patients with HIV/AIDS experience numerous challenges beyond those posed by the physical effects of their disease—including poverty, mental illness, drug addiction, social alienation, racism, and homophobia. Counseling patients who face these issues can be difficult, but a careful risk... More »
Why do people get addicted? Of the countless books that have been published on this topic, this is the first that focuses on the self-medication hypothesis (SMH). Understanding Addiction as Self Medication is largely based on the experiences of the authors and other clinicians with individuals who... More »
Self-administration of drugs of abuse often causes changes in the brain that potentiate the development or intensification of addiction. However, an addictive disorder does not develop in every person who uses alcohol or abuses an illicit drug. Whether exposure to a substance of abuse leads to... More »
Physicians generally display better health and have lower rates of all-cause mortality than the general population.1 However, their education, nutrition, and lifestyle do not offer similar protection from substance abuse and dependence. Prevalence rates of alcohol abuse and dependence among... More »
Fewer than a handful of books have been published on the ethical dimensions and challenges in treating and helping persons living with an addiction. Therefore, this book is a welcome contribution to the literature almost from the start. The contributors in this 9-chapter text range from community-... More »
The study and treatment of human sexual problems should fall under the purview of clinical psychiatry. Sexual behavior is an important factor in most of our patients’ lives and may help define their sense of competence and serve as a force leading to interpersonal bonding More »
Addiction has been defined as a condition in which a behavior that can function both to produce pleasure and to reduce painful affects is used in a pattern that is characterized by 2 key features: More »
The molecular events that accompany drug abuse and addiction are different for women than for men, according to new studies presented at the annual meeting of the American Psychiatric Association (APA). As yet, little if any of this knowledge has made its way into gender-based differences in... More »
Integrated dual disorder programs have come about because traditional treatment of co-occurring addiction disorders and psychiatric disorders fail in a large number of people and waste resources. More than 5 million adults in the United States have a serious mental illness and a co-occurring... More »
Addiction specialists and organizations for the elderly anticipate a tidal wave of baby boomers who will need help fighting addictions, often for different substances and with different attitudes toward treatment than the generation that came before them. The leading edge of the baby boom generation... More »
