Seminars in Addiction Psychiatry

"At the start of the 21st Century, 'addiction' is said to be a 'disease' in most Western industrialized countries (1), and in the USA the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) refers to it as a 'brain disease'. However, when reading about the problems presented by drugs and alcohol you will encounter a range of terms ('addict', 'alcoholic', 'alcohol misuse', 'drug abuse', 'substance dependence') which seem to overlap and sometimes contradict each other. As is common with a lot of medical terminology, the meaning of many of these words has changed over time as they have started to be used out of their original context, and this can be a barrier to effective communication about the subject. Furthermore, the disease concept of addiction is not the only explanation of the problem, and some have argued that addiction is 'a set of ideas which have a history and a cultural location' (2)"--

1. Historical and conceptual approaches to addiction Ed Day and James Morris; 2. Illicit drug use: epidemiology, aetiology and prevention Ed Day; 3. Illicit drug use: clinical features and treatment Ed Day; 4. Addiction to prescription medication: benzodiazepines, Z-drugs and gabapentinoids Emma Rourke and Fergus Law; 5. Alcohol use disorders: epidemiology and prevention Paul Bogowicz, Eilish Gilvarry, Andrea Hearn and Eileen Kaner; 6. Alcohol use disorders: aetiology and pathophysiology Nicola J. Kalk and Mary Thornton; 7. Alcohol use disorders: clinical features and treatment Duncan Raistrick and Gillian Tober; 8. Psychological approaches to addiction Rob Hill and Jennifer Harris; 9. Co-morbid substance use and mental illness Michael Kelleher; 10. Medical aspects of drug and alcohol use David Pang and Mark Pucci; 11. Organising treatment services for drug and alcohol misusers Emily Finch; 12. Tobacco use disorders Debbie Robson and Ann McNeil; 13. Novel psychoactive substances (NPS) and club drugs Dima Abdulrahim and Owen Bowden-Jones; 14. Addiction problems in a family and social context Alex Copello and Ed Day; 15. Addiction recovery mutual-aid organizations John F. Kelly, Alexandra Abry and Brandon G. Bergman.