Preface

Substance use disorders are amongst the major causes of disease burden around the globe. In a World Drug Report by the United Nations Office on Drug and Crime it is estimated that 210 million individuals have used illicit drugs at least once and that these drugs are related to about 200,000 deaths. The economic burden of substance use disorders in the USA alone from health care costs, lost productivity, crime, incarceration and drug enforcement is estimated to be $524 billion.

Addiction is a brain disease where a person uses a drug compulsively despite negative consequences and drug use in turn causes persistent changes in the brain circuits which perpetuates its use. In predisposed individual’s addiction starts during adolescent years. Fortunately addictions are preventable through public awareness and education and are treatable through contemporary medications, individual, group or family therapy as a well as self-help groups. Biopsychosocial intervention can mitigate life time suffering of the patient, family, and friends. Treatment also improves the quality of their lives. Moreover it can prevent tragic loss of life as well . Extended abstinence predicts long-term recovery. Drug addiction is a chronic disease and its relapse rate is comparable to hypertension, diabetes or asthma.

Recently one notable development has been publication of DSM-5 . Our publication provides information on the diagnosis of the additive disorders consistent with this new version of DSM.

The book is titled Substance and Non Substance Related Addiction Disorders: Diagnosis and Treatment and is divided in to three sections.

• Section I addresses basic general topics related to scientific underpinnings of addictive disorders including the neurobiology and addiction neural reward pathways, genetics and psychosocial basis of addictions; urine drug screens in diagnosis and management of substance use disorders, co-occurring psychiatric and substance use disorders and pharmacological treatment of comorbid psychiatric disorders and motivational interviewing. Each chapter has key learning points, references, a patient education hand out .
• Section II provides updated information about individual drug related addictive disorder. Each chapter in addition to key learning points and a patient education handout, describes a case vignette and its discussion related to specific drug, its diagnosis, medical and biopsychosocial interventions. In addition these chapters include neurobiology, epidemiology summary and updated references with resources for more information.
• Section III presents information about non-substance related addiction disorders, a vignette and its discussion, diagnosis and interdisciplinary treatment strategies. The chapter in this section is primarily devoted to gambling addiction; other non-substance related addictions are also mentioned.

This book is by multiple authors with experience in addictions and is designed to meet the clinical practice needs of internists, family physicians, nurse practitioners, physician assistants, addiction therapists, psychiatry and primary care residents, graduate students and other health care professionals interested in the care of patients with substance use and addiction disorders. A concise format for each chapter is used to maintain its user friendliness for quick review.