Textbook of Addiction Treatment: International Perspectives

Addiction is an increasingly recognized major global public health issue. A growing number of medical specialties, psychological and social science training programs, and professional associations are incorporating addiction as part of their training and continuing education curricula across a broad array of cultures. The need for an International Textbook in this expanding field has therefore become evident.

Presenting a world view of the spectrum of addictions-related problems across different cultures, this reference volume highlights the main differences and similarities between clinical practices in the field of Addiction Medicine based on neurobiological similarities as well as epidemiological and socio-cultural differences.

While the focus will be on marshalling the empirical evidence in support of the clinical practices, areas where information is mostly experiential will be noted. Examples where an international perspective is critical involve issues such as: the current shift of the smoking epidemic from developed to low and middle-income countries; the growing influence on young people from the parental home and local neighbourhood to role models potentially continents away the demonstrated benefits and limitations of international drug conventions which on the one hand have contained the problem of illegal drugs versus an increase in the use of a legal drug, like tobacco; the need for cost effective translation of the clinical practices of Western health care settings to prevention and treatment strategies adapted to the needs of the rest of the world.

This Textbook, which collates the experience and wisdom of more than 260 leaders in the field, coming from more than 30 countries, is promoted by the International Society of Addiction Medicine (ISAM), founded in 1999, which has as its principal mission the education of practitioners in Addiction Medicine and their trainees worldwide (website: www.isamweb.org).

Nady el-Guebaly, M.D., DPH, DPsych, is Professor and Head, Division of Addiction, Department of Psychiatry, University of Calgary, Research Director, Alberta Gambling Research Institute and Consulting Psychiatrist at the Foothills Medical Centre, Alberta Health Services. Along with investigators at the Addiction Centre, he has established a program of clinical research in the field of adult and adolescent substance abuse with particular focus on the interaction of psychiatric disorders and substance abuse, the continuing medical education of health professionals, treatment outcome and aspects of gambling problems. These efforts have resulted in some 240 publications as well as national and international collaborative activities. A number of projects providing a window on the psychiatric profession as well as the addiction and mental health system in Canada are also in process. He is Editor of the Canadian Journal of Addiction Medicine. 

Giuseppe Carrà, M.D., M.Sc., Ph.D., is currently Deputy Medical Director for Mental Health Community and Residential Programmes at San Gerardo University Hospital-Monza-I and Research Fellow at the UCL Mental Health Sciences Unit in London. His research interests include addiction psychiatry, psychoeducational interventions in schizophrenia, and psychiatric disorders in jails. He has served in several experts’ panel in the addiction field for the European Commission, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), and the  the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction (EMCDDA). He has served in the Editorial Boards and as reviewer for several high impact factor Journals in the addiction field. Giuseppe Carrà has extensively published about Dual Diagnosis among people with severe mental illness, in peer reviewd journals and edited textbooks. He has been PI for several research projects funded at a National and European level.

Marc Galanter, M.D. is Professor of Psychiatry at NYU, and Director of the Division of Alcoholism and Drug Abuse at NYU School of Medicine. He is also Deputy Director of the Substance Abuse Program at the NYU’s World Health Organization Collaborating Center, and Director of its national Center for Medical Fellowships in Alcoholism and Drug Abuse. He is Senior Editor of the journal "Substance Abuse", the annual book series “Recent Developments in Alcoholism”, and author of the books, "Network Therapy for Alcohol and Drug Abuse" and “Spirituality and the Healthy Mind: Science, Therapy and the Need for Personal Meaning.” His NIH and foundation-funded studies have addressed family therapy for substance abuse, pharmacologic treatment for addiction, self-help treatment for substance abusers, and spiritually-oriented recovery.