Clinical Textbook of Addictive Disorders 3rd ed - R. Frances, S. Miller, A. Mack (Guilford, 2005) WW

PrefaceThis third edition of the Clinical Textbook of Addictive Disorders appears 20years after the founding of the American Academy of Addiction Psychiatry(AAAP). During this period, major progress has occurred in both general psychiatryand addiction psychiatry. There has been movement ranging fromdescription of the phenomenology of psychiatric disorders, including substanceuse disorders (SUDs), to the beginnings of understanding neurobiologicalmechanisms, pathophysiology, genetic and family influences, and etiology.Addiction treatment research, including that for comorbid conditions, hasadvanced and the development of evidence-based guidelines for addictiontreatment has been launched. While treatment methods are still very much tiedto the craft and art of psychotherapy (including self-help and spirituality), disseminationof research findings and evidence-based treatment approaches willadd to the quality of care of patients.Unfortunately, our advances in the understanding of addiction psychiatryare not necessarily associated with reductions in the incidence of substance use.The magnitude of use seems to be subject to fads and fluctuations in perceptionsof risk of use. Over the past 30 years there have been important variationsin the use of substances by age, gender, ethnic, and racial groups. The mostrecent estimate on the cost of substance use is for 1998, with the cost of drugabuse directly estimated at $143.4 billion (Office of National Drug Control Policy,2001) and the costs of alcohol abuse projected to be $185 billion(Harwood, 2000). This figure (estimated in 1992) reflects the estimated 8.3%of the population ages 12 or older who were current illicit drug users in 2002and perhaps also includes the 2.6% of the population ages 12 or older who werecurrent users of psychotherapeutic drugs taken nonmedically in 2002. The rateof current drug use among adolescents in 2002 was 11.6%, but that rate was surpassedby young adults (ages 18–25 years) at 20.2%. As for alcohol, an estimated120 million Americans ages 12 or older reported being current drinkersxi